Older adults who depend on electricity-powered medical equipment may face health risks that extend well beyond the immediate hours of a hurricane, according to new research examining two storms in North Carolina.
The study, published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, evaluated hospitalizations and deaths among Medicare beneficiaries aged 65 and older who used electricity-dependent medical equipment. That group includes people using devices such as ventilators, respirators and dialysis machines.
Looking beyond the storm’s immediate impact
Researchers assessed the effects of Hurricanes Matthew in 2016 and Florence in 2018. Rather than limiting the analysis to the days immediately surrounding landfall, they tracked outcomes over the following year.
Using county-level Federal Emergency Management Agency presidential disaster declarations, the researchers did not observe significant immediate changes after either storm. But the longer view told a more concerning story: the analysis found sustained increases in hospitalizations and deaths during the year after Hurricane Matthew.
That distinction matters for disaster planning. A storm’s visible emergency phase may end when floodwaters recede and power is restored in many areas, but health consequences for medically vulnerable residents can unfold later. The study does not establish a single cause for those outcomes, but it identifies an association that emergency planners and health systems will need to consider.
Flood maps produced stronger signals
The team also examined exposure using the North Carolina Flood Extent Archive, a higher-resolution measure of flooding. Those analyses showed stronger and more consistent associations between hurricane exposure and hospitalizations and deaths than the county-level disaster declarations did.
That result points to a practical limitation of broad administrative boundaries. A county may be included in a disaster declaration even though flooding and infrastructure disruptions are highly uneven within it. Conversely, people living in the most seriously flooded areas may have needs that are obscured when exposure is measured only at a county-wide level.
For researchers, the finding supports the value of more precise hazard data when studying health effects. For public agencies, it suggests that evacuation support, power-restoration priorities and follow-up services may be more effective when they are directed by local flooding conditions rather than only by broad disaster designations.
Unequal outcomes as flooding intensifies
The study also found that Black individuals experienced worse short- and long-term outcomes as flooding severity increased. The source does not identify a single explanation for that disparity, but the result underscores that a uniform emergency response may not produce uniform protection.
People relying on electrical equipment can face several overlapping vulnerabilities during a disaster: disrupted electricity, interrupted access to care, transportation barriers and difficulty reaching replacement supplies or clinical support. The research focused on outcomes rather than attributing each individual pathway, but its findings make clear that these risks should be addressed as part of health preparedness, not treated solely as an electricity problem.
Planning for a year, not a day
Senior author Jennifer L. Lund of the University of North Carolina’s Gillings School of Global Public Health said the research was shaped through work with affected communities and connects hurricane-hazard data with health-care utilization data in North Carolina.
The study lays groundwork for examining how hurricanes and flooding affect medically vulnerable populations more broadly, according to Lund. It also creates an evidence base for work with community organizations and local and state agencies on preparedness and planning.
The central lesson is that resilience has to include continuity of care. Emergency plans often emphasize warnings, shelter and initial response. This research indicates that people who depend on medical devices may require support that continues after the acute disaster period, especially in places where flooding was most severe.
As climate-related hazards and power disruptions remain a public-health concern, identifying residents who use electricity-dependent equipment and connecting them with local preparedness systems could become increasingly important. The North Carolina findings do not prescribe a specific policy, but they sharpen the question facing planners: how can disaster response protect medically vulnerable people through the long recovery that follows a storm?
This article is based on reporting by Medical Xpress. Read the original article.
Originally published on medicalxpress.com
