Major storms and COPD
We found that major storms were associated with 1.23 to 1.49 higher hospital admission of COPD from the lag0 to lag4 day after the major storms. The effects of major storms on COPD increased from lag0 continuously to lag3 and lasted to lag4. Among the major storms, snow, hurricane, wind and thunderstorms were the top causes of PO in New York State.
Similar to our findings, previous studies also indicated that COPD patients were vulnerable to the major storms [6,7,8,9]. For COPD patients with impaired lung function whose mobility is limited by fatigue or the use of supplemental oxygen tanks, even a small flood could be a debilitating event. Worsening COPD problems were reported as the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina which was a very large and powerful Category 3 storm that hit the Gulf Coast region in 2005 [6]. The other deadliest storm, hurricane Sandy, which particularly impacted New Jersey and the greater New York City area in 2012, was associated with 1.28–1.45 higher emergency department admission of COPD in varied primary payer classes [28]. In addition, highly windy day and thunderstorms were also potential triggers of COPD symptoms. Thunderstorms are known to trigger asthma symptoms, implying the possibility to flare COPD symptoms [29]. Such effects are stronger when storms arrive during springtime’s high-pollen periods. The pollen grains get sucked into storm clouds and become saturated with water. They then break into smaller grains that are carried by wind at the ground level and easily inhaled into the lungs. In addition, other environmental factors, such as extremes of temperature, both heat and cold, were associated with increased respiratory morbidity and mortality in COPD [30, 31]. Previous studies suggested that 18 °C (64 °F) might be a threshold below which colder temperatures adversely impact respiratory health for COPD patients [32, 33]. During winter storms (snow and ice), the temperature is much lower than this threshold, especially when heater and air conditioning systems are cannot function during major storms-induced PO. It was also indicated that each degree temperature above the threshold of the temperature-health effect curve (29 °C–36 °C) was associated with a 2.7–3.1% increase in same-day hospitalizations due to respiratory disease, including COPD [34].
PO and COPD
We found that PO was associated with 1.23 to 1.61 higher hospital admission of COPD from lag0 to lag2 day after the event. The association between PO and COPD was the strongest at lag2 day, followed by lag1 and lag0 day.
Our results were similar to the previous studies which indicated that storms-related PO were associated with increased rates of hospitalization (incidence rate ratio ranged from 2.41 to 8.17 for different COPD phenotypes comparing blackout days and normal days) [14]. A prior study found that the 2003 Northeast Blackout was associated with the most striking increases of respiratory hospital admissions among COPD patients [14]. A recent study determined the impact of PO on COPD exacerbations and found that PO was associated with 3–39% increase of COPD hospitalization (RR ranged from 1.03 to 1.39) [15]. This study found that the risk of PO on COPD was strongest at lag0 and lag1 days, which was similar to our results. COPD patients, who were reliant on electrically powered medical equipment like ventilators and oxygen were considered to be especially vulnerable to the PO [13, 35, 36].
Mediation effect of PO
We found that about 1/3 PO were induced by major storms and approximately half of the associations between major storms and hospital admission of COPD could be explained by the pathway of PO. The indirect effect of major storms was stronger than the direct effect on COPD. No previous studies assessed the mediation effect of PO on the major storms-COPD hospital admission associations. Thus, comparison to prior research may be impossible.
There are several potential mechanisms through which PO mediates the association between major storms and hospital admission of COPD. First, individuals with COPD may be dependent on at-home oxygen concentrators which require electricity to work. If power is knocked out by a storm, that could aggravate symptoms of COPD, with hospital admissions of COPD increasing accordingly. Second, COPD symptoms may be exacerbated because of inhaling dust and debris in the air during and after the storms. Among individuals with COPD, outdoor air pollutants, i.e., particulate matter, were associated with loss of lung function, increased respiratory symptoms, and mortality [37]. When storms are accompanied by PO, indoor and outdoor air quality further deteriorates from the use of backup electric generators, many of which burn diesel fuel to make electricity. Diesel Burning creates air pollutants, like particulate matter and nitrogen oxides, which make air quality worse after major storms. The nitrogen oxides that generators emit combine with other compounds in the presence of sunlight and generate ozone, which is a potent trigger for COPD attacks [37]. These irritants all trigger symptom flare-ups and increase the hospital admission of COPD. Third, electricity is essential to multiple systems, and a failure in the electrical grid brings cascading effects on water and sewage treatment, transportation, and especially health care systems [36, 38]. Many medical offices in hard hit areas closed after hurricane Katrina, leaving residents without access to prescribed essential medications for chronic breathing problems [33]. Surveys showed that COPD patients were one of the groups that were particularly affected by Hurricane Katrina [6]. Treatment interruptions and lack of access to medication for COPD patients could exacerbate respiratory symptoms both during and after the extreme event [35]. Fourth, the deteriorating residence environment as a consequence of major storms can get worse during PO which may induce COPD exacerbation. For example, bacteria and virus infection, which is the leading cause of overall COPD exacerbation, increases after major storms because mold begins to bloom on wet walls and floors [39]. PO makes this problem more serious because electricity dependent air conditioning systems and dehumidifiers stop working. In addition, during major storms-associated PO, COPD patients may not only be exposed to more allergens, but may also be required to endure extreme hot or cold temperatures which themselves have considerable effects on COPD [40]. A meta-analysis found that the hospitalization of COPD was 5% higher for every 5 °C increase in daily mean temperature. Previous study of a big data analysis suggested that cold weather increased viral infection and air pollution and was also a significant risk factor for COPD exacerbation [41].
Implications for practice
These findings emphasize the public health importance of maintaining electric power during and after major storms, and in preparing electrical systems to withstand extreme wind, temperature, and precipitation associated health events. They offer important guidance for practitioners of emergency public health and those who serve COPD patients in designing and implementing practices and allocating resources to prepare for major storms-induced PO events, and by extension, to reduce COPD admissions. In addition, at the household level, families with COPD patients are strongly encouraged to prepare surrogate electricity (e.g., generators and/or back-up battery power for medical equipment) or plan suitable temporary residence and transportation mode before major storms and PO event.
Strength and limitations
We are the first to assess the mediation effect of PO on the association between major storms and hospital admission of COPD. Both exposures and outcomes were extracted from existing objective data and reporting bias was minimized. We captured a large group of COPD patients from a legislatively mandated database covering 95% of hospitals across New York State during more than 10 years. We accessed multiple environmental information from different sources and integrated them in the assessment.
Although our study provides new insights, several limitations should be considered when interpreting our results. First, we only included hospital admissions (no outpatient visits or emergency department visits) of COPD, which merely captured the tip of iceberg. However, as exacerbation of COPD symptoms is generally severe and requires immediate medical care and treatment through hospital admission, our study population including COPD hospitalization may be appropriate in capturing the most severe group. Second, air pollution during major storms and PO may be confounders in the storms/PO-COPD associations [42]. Nevertheless, we have minimized the confounding effect by controlling for ambient concentration of PM2.5 at the county level in the statistical analysis. Third, the models we used to estimate the overall effect of major storms and PO on COPD may not be confirmed by typical model diagnostics. We obtained the overall effect of major storms and PO on COPD by developing a model for each of the specific divisions where the major storms and PO occurred and then pooling the results from these different divisions through meta-analysis. We followed the standard method widely used in previous studies with similar design [15, 43, 44]. Fourth, we only examined the acute or immediate effect (RRs) within the first week (lag 0–6 days) following the events. However, we observed that the effects of both major storms and PO on COPD hospitalization vanished after lag 6 day. In addition, we focused on assessing the immediate effect of major storms and PO on the exacerbation of COPD symptoms by including hospital admissions of COPD which represent the most severe conditions and need immediate medical care. Longer lag time may be considered in future studies. Fifth, we did not conduct sensitivity analysis by parameters in defining our model, including knots and degree of freedom. However, the logknots function that we used is a standard methodology procedure and the most used function to determine the location of knots in the lag space [45]. Meanwhile, we used df = 3 in our analysis and conducted extensive sensitivity analysis in the same database previously and found very similar effect estimates [15]. Finally, this is an observational and ecological study in nature, residual confounding in individual level may exist and temporal consequence cannot be determined. Future studies in individual level with better study design are needed to confirm our findings.