Social Vulnerability and Access of Local Medical Care During Hurricane Harvey: A Spatial Analysis

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Disaster Med Public Health Prep
• Personal Author:
  Rickless, David S. ; Wilt, Grete E. ; Sharpe, J. Danielle ; Molinari, Noelle ; Stephens, William ; LeBlanc, Tanya Telfair
• Description:
  Objectives:
  
  When Hurricane Harvey struck the coastline of Texas in 2017, it caused 88 fatalities and over US $125 billion in damage, along with increased emergency department visits in Houston and in cities receiving hurricane evacuees, such as the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex (DFW).
  
  Methods:
  
  We used syndromic surveillance data alongside the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Social Vulnerability Index to calculate the percentage of patients seeking care locally by zip code tabulation area. We used this variable to fit a spatial lag regression model, controlling for population density and flood extent.
  
  Results:
  
  Communities with more patients presenting for medical care locally were significantly clustered and tended to have greater socioeconomic vulnerability, lower household composition vulnerability, and more extensive flooding.
  
  Conclusions:
  
  These findings suggest that populations remaining in place during a natural disaster event may have needs related to income, education, and employment, while evacuees may have more needs related to age, disability, and single-parent household status.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Article Emergency Medical Services Geographic Mapping Natural Disasters Social Vulnerability Spatial Statistics
• Source:
  Disaster Med Public Health Prep. 17:e12
• Pubmed ID:
  33720000
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC8440658
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  CC999999/ImCDC/Intramural CDC HHSUnited States/ ; T32 ES007069/ES/NIEHS NIH HHSUnited States/
• Place as Subject:
  Texas
• Volume:
  17
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:4d7e06e71e1211b42144f43c5cb100cef5be7161985b64dd0cec5f03af13fb16
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/110265/cdc_110265_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.18 MB ]