Browsing by Author "Ramesh, Balaji"
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- Adverse Health Outcomes Following Hurricane Harvey: A Comparison of Remotely-Sensed and Self-Reported Flood Exposure EstimatesRamesh, Balaji; Callender, Rashida; Zaitchik, Benjamin F.; Jagger, Meredith; Swarup, Samarth; Gohlke, Julia M. (American Geophysical Union, 2023-04)Remotely sensed inundation may help to rapidly identify areas in need of aid during and following floods. Here we evaluate the utility of daily remotely sensed flood inundation measures and estimate their congruence with self-reported home flooding and health outcomes collected via the Texas Flood Registry (TFR) following Hurricane Harvey. Daily flood inundation for 14 days following the landfall of Hurricane Harvey was acquired from FloodScan. Flood exposure, including number of days flooded and flood depth was assigned to geocoded home addresses of TFR respondents (N = 18,920 from 47 counties). Discordance between remotely-sensed flooding and self-reported home flooding was measured. Modified Poisson regression models were implemented to estimate risk ratios (RRs) for adverse health outcomes following flood exposure, controlling for potential individual level confounders. Respondents whose home was in a flooded area based on remotely-sensed data were more likely to report injury (RR = 1.5, 95% CI: 1.27-1.77), concentration problems (1.36, 95% CI: 1.25-1.49), skin rash (1.31, 95% CI: 1.15-1.48), illness (1.29, 95% CI: 1.17-1.43), headaches (1.09, 95% CI: 1.03-1.16), and runny nose (1.07, 95% CI: 1.03-1.11) compared to respondents whose home was not flooded. Effect sizes were larger when exposure was estimated using respondent-reported home flooding. Near-real time remote sensing-based flood products may help to prioritize areas in need of assistance when on the ground measures are not accessible.
- Estimating Health Risks Associated With Flooding Following Hurricane Harvey Using Earth Observations and the CDC Social Vulnerability IndexRamesh, Balaji (Virginia Tech, 2021-08-12)Increases in cases of diarrheal disease, respiratory infections and pregnancy complications have been reported in the literature following floods caused by heavy rainfall. Analyzing the association between health records of outcomes related to flooding demarcated by satellite observations will be helpful to evaluate the use of satellite observed products in the mitigation of health risks for future flood events. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Social Vulnerability Index (CDC SVI), a relative index assigned to census tracts, measures sociodemographic factors that may affect the ability of communities to prepare for, respond to, and recover from extreme weather events. This index, which quantifies social vulnerability is expected to have a positive relationship with health outcomes associated with flooding. This study uses an inundation map created using observations from active remote sensing satellites to classify census tracts that were flooded after the historic rainfall caused by Hurricane Harvey in Texas in 2017. The duration or period of the inundation was determined using United States Geological Survey (USGS) stream gauge data. A controlled before and after study design was used, and the relative risk (RR) of 11 cause-specific emergency department (ED) visits among the flooded census tracts compared to non-flooded tracts during and after the flood period was modelled using modified Poisson regression while adjusting for a baseline period and the age, ethnicity, race and sex of the patient. Further modification of this relationship by social vulnerability, as measured by CDC SVI quartiles, was examined. The results of this study show that flooding was associated with an increase in ED visits related to carbon monoxide poisoning, insect bites, dehydration, hypothermia, intestinal infectious diseases, and pregnancy complications during the flood period. The average rate of ED visits related to pregnancy complications and insect bites were greater among the flooded tracts compared to the non-flooded tracts in the month following the inundation. Modification of this association by CDC SVI was observed in some cases, such that ED visits were higher or lower in census tracts within higher vulnerable quartiles compared to the least vulnerable quartile. Evaluating the usefulness of earth observations and the CDC SVI in estimating the health risk associated with floods due to Hurricane Harvey has provided understanding the use of these products for future flooding events in identifying specific communities with increased health risks during and following flooding events.
- Poultry Concentrated Animal-Feeding Operations on the Eastern Shore, Virginia, and Geospatial Associations with Adverse Birth OutcomesMendrinos, Antonia; Ramesh, Balaji; Ruktanonchai, Corrine W.; Gohlke, Julia M. (MDPI, 2022-10-12)Concentrated animal-feeding operations (CAFOs) emit pollution into surrounding areas, and previous research has found associations with poor health outcomes. The objective of this study was to investigate if home proximity to poultry CAFOs during pregnancy is associated with adverse birth outcomes, including preterm birth (PTB) and low birth weight (LBW). This study includes births occurring on the Eastern Shore, Virginia, from 2002 to 2015 (N = 5768). A buffer model considering CAFOs within 1 km, 2 km, and 5 km of the maternal residence and an inverse distance weighted (IDW) approach were used to estimate proximity to CAFOs. Associations between proximity to poultry CAFOs and adverse birth outcomes were determined by using regression models, adjusting for available covariates. We found a −52.8 g (−95.8, −9.8) change in birthweight and a −1.51 (−2.78, −0.25) change in gestational days for the highest tertile of inverse distance to CAFOs. Infants born with a maternal residence with at least one CAFO within a 5 km buffer weighed −47 g (−94.1, −1.7) less than infants with no CAFOs within a 5 km buffer of the maternal address. More specific measures of exposure pathways via air and water should be used in future studies to refine mediators of the association found in the present study.