ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Planetary Health
This article is part of the Research TopicEnvironmental Challenges and Public Health Inequality: Climate Change Impacts and Adaptive BehaviorsView all 6 articles
Mental Health Consequences of the 2024 Feni Flash Flood in Bangladesh: Prevalence and Risk Factors
Provisionally accepted
Md Rahman1*
Samantha Alam1Ifta Alam Shobuj1Md. Mehedi Hasan Santo1
Md. Tanvir Hossain2Farzana Rahman3
Md. Kaium Hossain4
Dr Edris Alam5
Md Kamrul Islam6- 1Bangladesh University of Professionals, Dhaka, Bangladesh
- 2Khulna University, Khulna, Bangladesh
- 3Independent University, Dhaka, Bangladesh
- 4United International University, Dhaka, Bangladesh
- 5Rabdan Academy, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
- 6King Faisal University, Al Ahsa, Saudi Arabia
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The 2024 flash flood in Feni District, Bangladesh, was an unforeseen natural hazarddisaster that significantly disrupted livelihoods, infrastructure, and overall well--being. While the physical and economic consequences of floods are widely studied, their impact on mental health remains underexplored, particularly in flood-prone regions like Bangladesh. This study examines the mental health issue experienced by flood survivors, focusing on depression, anxiety, and stress using the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21). A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 1,981 flood-affected individualsindividuals affected by the flood. The findings reveal an alarming prevalence of mental health disorders, with 52.80% suffering from severe depression, 44.17% from severe anxiety, and 46.90% from severe stress. Key risk factors included age, education level, chronic illness, and social satisfaction. Older adults, and individuals with lower educational attainment or pre-existing health conditions were particularly vulnerable to mental health challenges. The study also identified gaps in disaster preparedness, including ineffective early warning systems, lack of inadequate evacuation shelters, and insufficient socioeconomic support. These findings emphasize the urgent need for targeted mental health interventions, enhanced disaster management policies, and increasunderscore the pressing need for targeted mental health interventions, strengthened disaster management policies, and intensified community resilience efforts. Strengthening mental health services, improving flood Formatted: Line spacing: Double preparedness, and fostering community support networks are critical to mitigating the long-term psychological impact of future disasters.
Keywords: Mental Health, flash flood, psychological distress, disaster resilience, Bangladesh, disaster preparedness
Received: 18 Aug 2025; Accepted: 24 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Rahman, Alam, Shobuj, Santo, Hossain, Rahman, Hossain, Alam and Islam. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Md Rahman
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