Hurricanes Katrina and Rita May Have Caused Half of Recorded Stillbirths: Health Impact of Storms

Could hurricanes impact your health? It turns out that hurricanes Katrina and Rita may have been responsible for up to half of all recorded stillbirths in the worst hit areas. The findings reveal how adverse weather conditions can negatively affects the health of a population.

On Aug. 29 2005, Hurricane Katrina struck Louisiana; it was soon followed by Hurricane Rita on Sept. 24. Katrina was the costliest natural disaster in American history while Rita was the fourth most intense hurricane ever recorded. Both caused widespread damage to property, infrastructure, and people.

Now, scientists have taken a closer look at the damage that these hurricanes caused. They used composite figures from several government agencies to find that the hurricanes caused damage in 38 out of 64 areas in the state. In four areas, more than half of the local housing stock was damaged. Then, the scientists calculated the odds of a pregnancy resulting in a stillbirth in both damaged and undamaged areas in the 20 months before and the 28 months after Katrina struck.

So what did they find? It turns out that the risk of pregnancy ending in a stillbirth was a staggering 40 percent higher in areas where 10 to 50 percent of housing stock had been damaged. It was more than twice as high in areas where over 50 percent of the housing stock had taken a hit. In the end, they found that every one percent increase in the extent of damage to housing stock was associated with a corresponding seven percent rise in the number of stillbirths.

These findings aren't completely new, either. Previous research has shown that there's a link between maternal stress, depression, and trauma and birth complications, including stillbirths. This means that the hurricanes could very well have stressed mothers enough to cause this particular increase.

"Insofar as our empirical findings meaningfully generalize in time, the health risks to the unborn and their perinatal development will likely increase with more frequent and intense hurricanes," write the researchers in a news release.

The findings have implications for the impact on public health as climate change continues to affect weather systems and increate storm intensity.

The findings are published in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health.