Brief report Concomitants of perceived trust in hospital and medical services following Hurricane Sandy Menachem Ben-Ezra a,n , Robin Goodwin b , Yuval Palgi c , Krzysztof Kaniasty d,e , Marsha Zibalese Crawford f , Aviva Weinberger a , Yaira Hamama-Raz a a School of Social Work, Ariel University, Ariel, Israel b School of Social Sciences, Brunel University, Uxbridge, United Kingdom c Department of Gerontology, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel d Department of Psychology, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana, PA USA e Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland f School of Social Work, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA article info Article history: Received 2 September 2013 Received in revised form 8 August 2014 Accepted 9 August 2014 Available online 19 August 2014 Keywords: PTSD Disaster Emergency Subjective well-Being abstract The relationship between factors associated with perceived trust in hospital and medical services in the aftermath of a natural disaster is understudied. An online sample of 1000 people mainly from affected states was surveyed after Hurricane Sandy. Participants completed a survey which included disaster related questions and PTSD symptoms. Logistic regression revealed a significant association between perceived trust in hospital services to education, subjective well-being, being scared for the life of a loved one and perceived trust in emergency services. These findings may emphasis the positive association between maintaining active hospital services and mental health among the general population during crisis. & 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Hurricane Sandy struck New York Metropolitan Area on Octo- ber 29, leading to massive property damage and more than 100 casualties. The effect on the infrastructure was severe, with more than 8 million NY metropolitan residents suffering from power outages, accompanied by severe food shortages and mobility restrictions resulting from the widespread flooding (Neria and Shultz, 2012). During Hurricane Sandy, hospitals, clinics and medical centers, along with first responders were forced to cope with the disaster as power shortages and damages to buildings threatened a decrease of their readiness and efficiency at the peak of the crisis-related burden. Medical facilities that routinely serve large populations had to cope with excessive demands and maintain emergency chains of supplies in order to care for their patients (Redlener and Reilly, 2012). Moreover, the evacuation of New York's flagship public hospital, Bellevue Hospital Center, due to the backup's power failure might have had serious repercus- sions for the entire community in time of crisis (Powell et al., 2012). According to appraisal theorists (Smith and Ellsworth, 1985), emotions are elicited when a person evaluates an event or situation as important for his or her well-being and central concerns. Based on the above, the rational for conducting this study is to learn about the association between fear for loved ones during disaster, subjective well-being, perceptions of trust in efficacy of emergency services and its linkages to perceived trust in hospital and medical services in the aftermath of a natural disaster. The trust in hospital and medical services in the aftermath of a disaster is an important factor in disaster management and public health and may be a potentially associated with mental health. Hence, the purpose of the present report was to examine the association between peoples’ trust in hospital and medical services in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Empirical support demonstrating the association between perceived trust in hospital and medical services and perceived trust in emergency services and well-being would benefit disaster health providers and public health professionals. 2. Methods 2.1. Study design An online survey of 1000 people mainly from New York Metropolitan Area was taken during the fourth week of November 2012. The mean age was 45.16 (S. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/psychres Psychiatry Research http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2014.08.012 0165-1781/& 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. n Corresponding author. E-mail address: menbe@ariel.ac.il (M. Ben-Ezra). Psychiatry Research 220 (2014) 1160–1162