Impact of Hurricanes on Injury-Related Emergency Department Visits

Severe hurricanes strike portions of the United States nearly every year, affecting tens of thousands of people. Impact of Hurricanes on Injury-Related Emergency Department Visits, a statistical brief from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project, presents a detailed analysis focused on emergency department (ED) visits for injuries following a hurricane.

Counties designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency as disaster areas because of the hurricane were classified based on their proximity to the hurricane:

• Direct path: those disaster-designated counties through which the hurricane traveled directly, based on information from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
• Near path: those disaster-designated counties not in the direct path but that were affected by a hurricane wind speed of 34 knots per hour or greater.
• Remote: those disaster-designated counties that were neither in the direct path nor near the path of the hurricane.

Highlights

• Changes in the population rate of injury-related ED visits following a hurricane varied by county proximity to the hurricane, people's age, and time from the hurricane event.
• The rate of injury-related ED visits resulting in hospital admission increased the most during the week of the hurricane for people of all ages living in the direct path: 22.6 percent increase for children aged 0-17 years, 13.2 percent increase for adults aged 18-64 years, and 53.2 percent increase for adults aged 65 years and older.
• Regardless of county proximity to the hurricane, the rates of injury-related treat-and-release ED visits and ED visits resulting in admission increased for adults aged 65 years and older during the week of the hurricane. However, the impact lessened the further away that older adults resided from the hurricane's path.
• Children were most affected if they lived in the direct path of the hurricane during the week of the hurricane and the first 2 weeks following the hurricane. The rate of injury-related ED visits resulting in admission among children aged 0-17 years increased 22.6, 15.6, and 26.3 percent, respectively, over these 3 weeks.

Select to access Impact of Hurricanes on Injury-Related Emergency Department Visits.