Table 1 Main questionnaire items, their origins and how they relate to the Flood Impact Framework (Fig. 1)
Item | Origin (and scoring where relevant) | Relationship to Flood Impact Framework |
|---|---|---|
Socio-demographics variables: • Age • Gender • Indigenous status • Relationship status • Education level • Employment status • In receipt of income support • Farmer • Business owner | N/A | Personal characteristics, including those identifying key interest groups |
Flood exposure (liveable area of home flooded; business flooded; non-liveable area of home flooded e.g. garage; suburb flooded; home of close friend or relative flooded; none of the above). Degree of flooding: water above your head height through entire home/property; water between knee and head height (more than 50 cm) through entire home/property; water below knee-height (about 1-50 cm) through entire home/property; water in some but not all areas of home/property | Derived from the Brief Weather Disaster Trauma Exposure and Impact Screen [9] and the English National Cohort Study on Flooding & Health [22]. | Impact of flooding |
Evacuation: • Did you have to evacuate your home/business? • How much warning did you get? | Derived from the English National Cohort Study on Flooding & Health [22]. | Impact of flooding Pre-flood mitigation systems: Warning systems |
Displacement: • Because of the flood did you have to live elsewhere? | Derived from the Brief Weather Disaster Trauma Exposure and Impact Screen [9] English National Cohort Study on Flooding & Health [22]. | Impact of flooding |
Support at the time of the flood: • Did support requested from Govt/Community organisations/insurance/emergency services/volunteers meet your needs? | Bespoke measure developed for the Flood Impact Framework | Agency response: disaster relief Perceptions of responses Community & health service response: mental health & wellbeing needs |
Blame: • Are Govt/Community organisations/insurance/emergency services/volunteers to blame for distress? | Bespoke measure developed for the Flood Impact Framework | Perceptions of responses: sense of blame |
Previous flood experience: • Have you ever been in heavy rain or floods in which your home, business, workplace or school was damaged? | Bespoke measure developed for the Flood Impact Framework | Previous flood exposure, cumulative flood exposure |
Post-traumatic growth: • Have the severe rain and flood resulted in you being able to make any positive changes in your life? | Bespoke measure developed for the Flood Impact Framework | Personal factors |
Individual and community resilience: • Personal social capital – community participation | Australian Community Participation Questionnaire [50]. Seven point agree/disagree scale | Community factors Personal factors |
• Community functioning | A measure of ‘social’ (or ‘generalised’) trust from Berry et al. 2003 [51], a question from the CRACE study [52] and a bespoke measure for the Flood Impact Framework | Community factors |
• Personal social cohesion - connection, sense of belonging & support | Two sub-scales from the Interpersonal Support Evaluation List (Cohen et al. 1985 [53]) Berry 2008 [54] Seven point agree/disagree scale | Community factors Personal factors |
• Social trust | Adapted by Berry, 2008 [55] from the Organisational Trust Inventory (OTI) (Cummings & Bromiley,1996 [56]) and the World Values Survey (Inglehart et al., 2000 [57]) Seven point agree/disagree scale. | Personal factors |
• Generalised reciprocity | Adapted by Berry, 2008 [55] from the World Values Survey (Inglehart et al., 2000 [57]) Seven point agree/ disagree scale | Personal factors |
• Trait optimism | Adapted from the Life Orientation Test – Revised (LOT-R) (Scheirer et al. 1994) [58] Seven point agree/disagree scale | Personal factors |
Mental health and wellbeing outcome measures: • Flood-specific - Still distressed about the flood | Brief Weather Disaster Trauma Exposure and Impact Screen [9] “Are you still currently distressed about what happened during the flood?” Yes/No | Mental health & wellbeing of community members and subsequent needs |
• Flood-specific - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (about the flood) | Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Checklist (PCL-6) [59]. A list of complaints that people sometimes express after extreme rain and flooding. Cut-point for probable diagnosis was ≥ 14 [59] | Mental health & wellbeing of community members and subsequent needs |
• Not flood-specific - Depression | Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-2) [60]. Cut-point for probable diagnosis was ≥ 3 [60] | Mental health & wellbeing of community members and subsequent needs |
• Not flood-specific - Anxiety | Generalised Anxiety Disorder scale (GAD-2) [61]. Cut point for probable diagnosis was ≥ 3 [61] | Mental health & wellbeing of community members and subsequent needs |
• Not flood-specific - Suicidal ideation | A single suicidal ideation item from the Screening Tool for Assessing Risk of Suicide [62] Yes/No | Mental health & wellbeing of community members and subsequent needs |