A U.S. hospital study released Monday by the New York's Children's Health Fund shows that children of families displaced by hurricanes Katrina and Rita suffer from physical and mental health issues. The study reviewed medical records of 261 children who lived in a federally funded Baton Rouge trailer park until early summer. It is the first thorough review of children's medical and mental health after the catastrophic storms in 2005 that displaced thousands of families throughout the Gulf Coast.

After Hurricane Katrina, the Children's Health Fund dispersed mobile clinics throughout the U.S. Gulf Coast, including one outside Renaissance Village in Baton Rouge, the largest Federal Emergency Management Agency trailer park in the region, USA Today reported.

It appears that 41% of children younger than 4 were diagnosed with iron-deficiency anemia, more than double the rate of children living in New York City homeless shelters, says Irwin Redlener, president of the group and the study's author. "The recovery from Katrina was actually handled far worse even than the initial response," Redlener said. They also found that 55% of those 6 and older had mental problems, 42% had a respiratory allergy or infection and a third had impaired hearing or vision.
More than half were from Louisiana, mostly from New Orleans Parish, and they were disproportionately very poor and African-American.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) plan to initiate a long-term study focusing on children living in federal-funded trailers and mobile homes in Louisiana and Mississippi. Alarming levels of toxins like formaldehyde were found in children's diagnosis as well.