Preparedness, hurricanes Irma and Maria, and impact on health in Puerto Rico

Only few studies evaluated whether hurricane preparedness impacts health. The PREPARE study addresses this gap. We recruited participants who had pertinent pre-hurricane data from the 364 San Juan. Overweight Adults Longitudinal Study (SOALS) and 125 patients with diabetes from Federally Qualified H...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of disaster risk reduction 2022-01, Vol.67, p.102657, Article 102657
Main Authors: Joshipura, K.J., Martínez-Lozano, M., Ríos-Jiménez, P.I., Camacho-Monclova, D.M., Noboa-Ramos, C., Alvarado-González, G.A., Lowe, S.R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Only few studies evaluated whether hurricane preparedness impacts health. The PREPARE study addresses this gap. We recruited participants who had pertinent pre-hurricane data from the 364 San Juan. Overweight Adults Longitudinal Study (SOALS) and 125 patients with diabetes from Federally Qualified Health Center (COSSMA) in Puerto Rico. Participants aged 42–75 years completed interviews 20–34 months after Hurricanes Irma and Maria. We evaluated associations between self-reported hurricane preparedness and health and other related associations using logistic regression controlling for age, location, education and interview date. Only 41% of participants reported high pre-hurricane preparedness; 25% reported gaps (moderate/low availability) in information and 48% reported gaps in resources for hurricane preparedness. Participants reporting lower pre-hurricane preparedness had higher reported hurricane-related detrimental health impact (OR = 1.96; 95% CI: 1.31, 2.95) and higher odds (OR = 2.07; 95% CI: 0.92, 4.68) of developing new non-communicable disease (NCD) compared to others. Post-hurricane drinking water disruption for ≥3 months versus none or less (OR = 2.76; 95% CI: 1.39, 5.47) and similarly diet changes due to cooking/refrigeration access (OR = 1.96; 95% CI: 1.24, 3.07), and diet changes for ≥20 months due to finances/access to shops (OR = 2.83; 95% CI: 1.85, 4.32) were also associated with detrimental health impact. Lower preparedness was associated with higher detrimental impact of the hurricanes on overall health, and marginally significant impact on NCD. Future preparedness efforts could especially target means of coping with disruption of water services and regular diet, as these were also associated with detrimental health impact. •Despite a history of hurricanes, 59% were not well prepared for the hurricanes.•Low preparedness is associated with detrimental health impact of hurricanes.•Disruption of drinking water >3 months was related to detrimental health impact.•Diet changes due to the hurricanes were associated with detrimental health impact.•Several gaps in preparedness, resources and information were identified.
ISSN:2212-4209
2212-4209
DOI:10.1016/j.ijdrr.2021.102657