Citation

Ramesh B, Jagger MA, Zaitchik BF, Kolivras KN, Swarup S, Yang B, Corpuz BG, Gohlke JM. Health Place 2022; 74: e102757.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.healthplace.2022.102757

PMID

35131607

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Satellite observations following flooding coupled with electronic health data collected through syndromic surveillance systems (SyS) may be useful in efficiently characterizing and responding to health risks associated with flooding.

RESULTS: There was a 10% (95% Confidence Interval (CI): 1%-19%) increase in asthma related ED visits and 22% (95% CI: 5%-41%) increase in insect bite related ED visits in the flooded ZCTAs compared to non-flooded ZCTAs during the flood period. One month following the floods, diarrhea related ED visits were increased by 15% (95% CI: 4%-27%) for flooded ZCTAs and children and adolescents from flooded ZCTAs had elevated risk for dehydration related ED visits. During the protracted period (2-3 months after the flood period), the risk for asthma, insect bite, and diarrhea related ED visits were elevated among the flooded ZCTAs. Effect modification by reported age, ethnicity and race was observed.

CONCLUSION: Combining satellite observations with SyS data can be helpful in characterizing the location and timing of environmentally mediated adverse health outcomes, which may be useful for refining disaster resilience measures to mitigate health outcomes following flooding.

Language: en

Keywords

Emergency department visits; Flood exposure; Health outcomes; Remote sensing; Syndromic surveillance; Tropical storm imelda