Flood exposure was associated with the growing use and cost of health care among those who benefited from medicate of 65 or older, emphasizing the need to improve public health target strategy and destruction.1
The authors of Open network open The study states that the incidence of extreme rainfall has become more often and severe over the past century, and it is expected that the climate change will increase further. He noted that floods affect various precision ways, including sinking, electric injuries and hypothermia. In addition, the damage to the flood infrastructure can disrupt health services, displaced individuals, and create broader social challenges.
Older adults can be particularly at risk of health -related health effects due to precision health conditions and movement limits, which can hinder their ability to respond to flood warnings or evacuation. This weakness is not unique to the flood, because most residents died during the California forest fire in January, either they were 65 years old or older or their physical disability, which indicated the challenges of evacuation for these populations.2
The most expensive disasters in the United States are flooded, many people have caused more than $ 1 billion.1 Nevertheless, researchers highlighted the lack of understanding on the use of health care and flooding on the costs associated with it, which limits the future estimates of health effects reviews, risk communication, climate loss estimates, and the impact of climate change.
In the summer months, flood exposure was more firmly associated with the growing use and cost of health care and in the medical beneficiaries of 85 or older. | Image Credit: Rico löb – Stock.adobe.com
To remove these gulfs, they analyzed the relationship between the use of large -scale floods and health care among those who resided in the Zip Code Tabletation Areas (ZCTA), affected by such incidents between 2008 and 2017. In particular, they reviewed the events of the emergency department and the incidents of the hospital and the incidents of the hospital and the cost of the hospital.
The basic exposure was the presence of variable floods, as listed in multi -source flood inventions, which is a locally distributed flood database. Also, the main results measuring included the Event rate ratio (IRRS) with a similar 95 % CIS.
To correct the amount of effect, the researchers calculated the percentage of the risk and estimated the number of additional visits. In addition, they made strict reviews to assess the amendment of the potential effect. As far as healthcare costs are concerned, researchers made all estimates standard up to US $ 2017 to ensure comparisons.
The population of this study consists of 11,801,527 Medicare, which is 65 or older, whose average (SD) age is 74.4 (7.6). Most of the beneficiaries were women (56.3 %) and white (88.3 %). From 2008 to 2017, researchers vowed that 16.536 out of 33,140z CTAs were flooded. The medium number of experienced floods in each ZCTA was 1 (IQR, 1-2), and the median flood period was 10 (IQR, 4-30).
The average (SD) ZCTA flood exposure was 1.3 (0.6). Also, the flood in the middle area was 34,769 (IQR, 17,319-65,584) square miles, and according to ZCTA, the average number of beneficiaries from Medicare was 4142 (IQR, 2006-7536).
After flood exposure, the rate of 4.8 % (IRR, 1.05; 95 % CI, 1.04-1.05) respectively increased the rate of 7.4 % (IRR, 1.07; 95 % CI, 1.07-1.08). Researchers observed the largest IRR increase for editors (IRR, 1.08; 95 % CI, 1.06-1.11) and injuries (IRR, 1.05; 95 % CI, 1.04-1.06). Similarly, they saw the highest IRR increase in hospitals (IRR, 1.12; 95 % CI, 1.10-1.13) and metabolic and kidney conditions (IRR, 1.10; 95 % CI, 1.07-12).
Additionally, stress analyzes decided that with IRR age, from 65 years to 74 years (IRR, 1.05; 95 % CI, 1.04-1.06), more than 4.9 % of hospitals entered 75 to 84 (IRR, 1.07; 95 % CI, 1.06-1.08) and 12.4 % more than 7.4 %. CI, 1.11-1.1). In the summer months, IRRs also increased IRRS for ED Visit (IRR, 1.07 95 95 % CI, 1.06-1.10) and hospital (IRR, 1.11; 95 % CI, 1.10-13).
Finally, the average ZCTA level cost was 3 3230 (95 % CI, $ 3198- $ 32.610), and all reasons for 11,310 (95 % CI, 11,252- $ 11,367) were to enter hospitals. As a result, Medicare System’s national costs estimates for ED Visit and hospital to be admitted to 69,275,429 (95 % CI, 63,010,840- $ 76,315,210) and $ 191,409,409,579 (95 % CI, $ 172,782,870-2060-2061818181818181818181 was estimated.
Researchers acknowledged the limits of their study, including the estimates of health care costs using medical dataset claims. This approach cannot capture the total health care costs as a result of flood exposure. Despite their limits, he expressed confidence in his results and suggested areas for further research.
The authors concluded, “Although our results provided valuable insights to understand the effects of flood -related health, they also highlighted the need for ongoing research in the area, especially in the context of aging population and changing climate.” “The purpose of the next study is to include more detailed and individual level data to further improve our understanding of the complex mutual interference between flood events and population health.”
References
- Vettestine Z.S, Paresh C, the reasoning AK, Rogers MH, Seto E, Hess JJ. Emergency maintenance, hospital hospitality, and floods. Jama Net and Open. 2025 8 8 (3): E250371. DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.0371
- Bonavatakola Ji Wild Fire evacuation is a problem for disabled, elderly residents. AJMC. January 17, 2025. Gained access to March 12, 2025
