Mental Health and Weather Extremes in a Southeastern U.S. City: Exploring Group Differences by Race

The connection between mental health and weather extremes is a public health concern, but less studied to date than physical health. This exploratory study examines the mental health impacts of two kinds of weather extremes increasingly linked to climate change—summer heat waves and extreme winter weather—in a low- to middle-income population in the Southeastern U.S. The distribution of mental health impacts, and potential pathways to them, are examined with a focus on race. Data are from a random-sample survey of 426 participants and are analyzed with bivariate statistics and path analysis. Self-reported mental health impacts, in both seasons, were common in our study, with White participants tending to report worse impacts than participants who identified with other racial groups. Physical health had direct effects on mental health across several models, overall and by racial group. For summer heat waves, concern about climate change and social cohesion had direct and indirect effects, respectively, on mental health in White participants only. For extreme winter weather, preparedness had a direct negative effect on mental health in White, but not Black, participants. Results suggest that there may be racial differences in the influence of human and social capital factors on mental health related to weather extremes, warranting further study of this critical topic and with larger racial subgroup samples.

Download Full-text

Keeping Each Other Safe: Who Checks on Their Neighbors During Weather Extremes in Summer and Winter?

Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness ◽

10.1017/dmp.2021.175 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-8

Author(s):

Lisa Reyes Mason ◽

Christine C. Ekenga

Keyword(s):

Health Impacts ◽

Social Connections ◽

Future Research ◽

Winter Weather ◽

Weather Extremes ◽

Target Groups ◽

Community Based ◽

Factors Associated ◽

Summer Heat ◽

Initial Target

Abstract Objective: Weather extremes are increasing with climate change and associated with higher morbidity and mortality. Promotion of social connections is an emerging area of research and practice for risk reduction during weather extremes. This study examines the practice of checking on neighbors during extreme summer heat and extreme winter weather. Objectives are to (1) describe the extent of neighbor checking during these extremes, and (2) examine factors associated with neighbor checking. Methods: We analyze survey data (n = 442) from a primarily low- and moderate- income study sample in a Southeastern U.S. city, using descriptive statistics and logistic regression. Results: About 17.6% of participants checked on neighbors during extreme summer heat, and 25.2% did so during extreme winter weather. Being middle or older aged and having more adverse physical health impacts were positively associated with neighbor checking, for both extremes. For winter only, having less education was positively associated with neighbor checking. Conclusions: Community-based partnerships for reducing risk during weather extremes may consider people who are older or have experienced their own adverse health impacts as initial target groups for promoting neighbor checking. Future research should also examine the motivations for, details about, and impacts of neighbor checking in greater depth.

Download Full-text

Health Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic Among Older Adults With Chronic Conditions

Innovation in Aging ◽

10.1093/geroni/igab046.2733 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽

pp. 741-741

Author(s):

Courtney Polenick ◽

Vanessa Lee ◽

Shreya Salwi ◽

Nikita Daniel ◽

Annie Zhou ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Older Adults ◽

Health Care ◽

Physical Health ◽

Chronic Conditions ◽

Self Care ◽

Health Impacts ◽

Health Concern ◽

Severe Illness ◽

Daily Routine

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic may have adverse health implications, particularly among older adults with chronic conditions who are at increased risk of severe illness. This cross-sectional study examined the early health impacts of the pandemic among adults aged 50 and older with chronic conditions. Participants included 700 adults (M = 64.60 years, SD = 8.85, range = 50 – 94) from Michigan (82.4%) and 33 other U.S. states who reported at least one chronic condition and completed an anonymous online survey between May 14 and July 9, 2020. Of these, 488 also provided open-ended responses. Individuals reported lower illness self-efficacy, less consumption of fruits, vegetables, and fried foods, and lower physical activity, along with greater alcohol use since the pandemic. About half (42.7%) reported worsened sleep. One in five (20.1%) reported at least some difficulty obtaining medications and over half (60.4%) reported at least some difficulty receiving routine care. Almost two-thirds (63.9%) had delayed preventative care and one in five (19.3%) had delayed essential medical treatment. Nearly half (42.6%) avoided contacting care providers about a physical health concern and one in eight (12.9%) avoided reporting mental health concerns. Qualitative data revealed that the pandemic has influenced how participants cared for their physical health through following guidelines related to COVID-19; coping with daily routine changes; greater awareness of self-care; mental health impacts; and health care disruptions. Older adults with chronic conditions report distinct pandemic-related challenges for self-care and health care that should be addressed in interventions to maintain their health and functioning.

Download Full-text

Climate and Environmental Crises

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics ◽

10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.1602 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Victor Galaz

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Food Insecurity ◽

Carbon Dioxide Emissions ◽

Heat Waves ◽

Initial Conditions ◽

Marine Species ◽

Climate System ◽

Weather Extremes ◽

Intergovernmental Panel ◽

Climate Crisis

Climate change is increasingly being framed as a “climate crisis.” Such a crisis could be viewed both to unfold in the climate system, as well as to be induced by it in diverse areas of society. Following from current understandings of modern crises, it is clear that climate change indeed can be defined as a “crisis.” As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 1.5oC special report elaborates, the repercussions of a warming planet include increased food insecurity, increased frequency and intensity of severe droughts, extreme heat waves, the loss of coral reef ecosystems and associated marine species, and more. It is also important to note that a range of possible climate-induced crises (through, e.g., possible increased food insecurity and weather extremes) will not be distributed evenly, but will instead disproportionally affect already vulnerable social groups, communities, and countries in detrimental ways. The multifaceted dimensions of climate change allow for multiple interpretations and framings of “climate crisis,” thereby forcing us to acknowledge the deeply contextual nature of what is understood as a “crisis.” Climate change and its associated crises display a number of challenging properties that stem from its connections to basically all sectors in society, its propensity to induce and in itself embed nonlinear changes such as “tipping points” and cascading shocks, and its unique and challenging long-term temporal dimensions. The latter pose particularly difficult decision-making and institutional challenges because initial conditions (in this case, carbon dioxide emissions) do not result in immediate or proportional responses (say, global temperature anomalies), but instead play out through feedbacks among the climate system, oceans, the cryosphere, and changes in forest biomes, with some considerable delays in time. Additional challenges emerge from the fact that early warnings of pending so-called “catastrophic shifts” face numerous obstacles, and that early responses are undermined by a lack of knowledge, complex causality, and severe coordination challenges.

Download Full-text

Strategies for Delivering Mental Health Services in Response to Global Climate Change

10.20944/preprints202010.0150.v1 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Lawrence Palinkas ◽

Meaghan O’Donnell ◽

Winnie Lau ◽

Marleen Wong

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Mental Health ◽

Mental Health Professionals ◽

Global Climate ◽

Well Being ◽

Economic Loss ◽

Environmental Conservation ◽

Health Impacts ◽

Sea Levels ◽

Services Delivery

This review examines from a services perspective strategies for preparedness and response to mental health impacts of three types of climate-related events: 1) acute climate-related events such as hurricanes, floods and wildfires, 2) sub-acute or long-term changes in the environment such as drought and heat stress; and 3) the existential threat of long-lasting changes, including higher temperatures, rising sea levels and a permanently altered and potentially uninhabitable physical environment. Strategies for acute events include development and implementation of guidelines and interventions for monitoring and treating adverse mental health outcomes and strengthening individual and community resilience, training of non-mental health professionals for services delivery, and the mapping of available resources and locations of at-risk populations. Additional strategies for sub-acute changes include advocacy for mitigation policies and programs and adaptation of guidelines and interventions to address the secondary impacts of sub-acute events such as economic loss, threats to livelihood, health and well-being, population and family displacement, environmental degradation and collective violence. Strategies for long-lasting changes include implementation of evidence-based risk communication interventions that address the existential threat of climate change, promoting the mental health benefits of environmental conservation, and promoting positive mental health impacts of climate change.

Download Full-text

Physical and mental health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic among college students who are undocumented or have undocumented parents

BMC Public Health ◽

10.1186/s12889-021-11606-x ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Annie Ro ◽

Victoria E. Rodriguez ◽

Laura E. Enriquez

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

College Students ◽

Physical Health ◽

Health Effects ◽

Resource Use ◽

Undocumented Students ◽

Health Impacts ◽

Primary Data ◽

Physical And Mental Health ◽

Mental And Physical Health

Abstract Background The COVID-19 pandemic may have disproportionately affected the mental and physical health of undocumented students and students with undocumented parents. Methods We analyzed primary data from 2111 California college students collected March–June 2020. We estimated the odds of mental or physical health being affected “a great deal” by COVID by immigration group and then examined whether this was moderated by campus belonging or resource use. Results Students with undocumented parents were least likely to report COVID-related mental and physical health effects. Undocumented students and students whose parents have lawful immigration status did not differ in their COVID-related physical and mental health. For all students, more campus resource use and higher campus belonging were associated with negative mental and physical health effects. Discussion Negative COVID-related mental and physical health was widespread. Separation from campus-based resources was detrimental during the early stages of the pandemic.

Download Full-text

Worrying about climate change: is it responsible to promote public debate?

BJPsych International ◽

10.1192/s2056474000000234 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 12 (2) ◽

pp. 31-32

Author(s):

Helen L. Berry ◽

Dominic Peel

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Mental Health ◽

Global Warming ◽

Fossil Fuel ◽

Well Being ◽

Public Debate ◽

Health Impacts ◽

Population Mental Health ◽

Regional Australia ◽

Impacts Of Climate Change

Some fear that provoking widespread worry about climate change may harm mental health. The Regional Wellbeing Survey, a large study of health, well-being and life in rural and regional Australia, examined climate change worry and attitudes. Most respondents were worried about climate change and agreed that fossil fuel use causes global warming, but there was no evidence to suggest that worry about climate change is linked to mental health in the general population. Respectful, calm, considered public debate about how to respond to climate change is unlikely to be harmful to population mental health. Individually focused clinical approaches are unlikely to be effective as a primary approach in managing the mental health impacts of climate change. Instead, collective, systems-based approaches will be needed.

Download Full-text

Impacts on Public Health

Utilizing Innovative Technologies to Address the Public Health Impact of Climate Change - Advances in Environmental Engineering and Green Technologies ◽

10.4018/978-1-5225-3414-3.ch002 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 37-72

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Climate Change ◽

Emergency Preparedness ◽

Poverty Reduction ◽

Heat Waves ◽

Health Impacts ◽

Access To Education ◽

Vector Borne Diseases ◽

The Public ◽

Impacts Of Climate Change

Many serious adverse public health impacts of climate change are already being felt around the globe, including record-breaking heat waves, severe air pollution, widespread water contamination that has brought a resurgence of cholera and has compromised clean drinking water and sanitation for more than one billion people worldwide, food scarcity and undernutrition from droughts and desertification, pandemics of vector-borne diseases, and increasingly frequent and severe natural hazards such as flooding, hurricanes, and earthquakes. Centralized, well-organized emergency preparedness planning is needed at the national, regional, and municipal levels to enable safe and efficient evacuations, and to minimize injuries and fatalities. In addition, effective planning to address the public health impacts of climate change is contingent on poverty reduction, and adequate access to education and healthcare for all. This chapter addresses the major public health impacts of global warming and the use of technologies in adapting to them.

Download Full-text

Chronic Mental Health Impacts of Climate Change Extremes: A Case Study of the Largest Californian Wild Fire

10.21203/rs.3.rs-73063/v1 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Sarita Silveira ◽

Mariah Kornbluh ◽

Mathew C. Withers ◽

Gillian Grennan ◽

Veerabhadran Ramanathan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Mental Health ◽

Health Outcomes ◽

Sleep Disturbances ◽

Large Scale ◽

Health Impacts ◽

Mental Wellbeing ◽

Regression Analyses ◽

Post Traumatic Stress ◽

Resilience Factors

Abstract Background. Weather-related disasters such as droughts and fires as accelerated by climate change have led to substantial growth in interest in impacted health outcomes. While physical health outcomes have been studied in this context, our understanding of climate change impacted mental health is at its infancy. This study focuses on the mental health impacts of the largest Californian wildfire to-date, the Camp Fire of 2018.Methods. We investigated a sample of 780 Californian residents with different degrees of disaster exposure, and measured mental health using clinically valid scales for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), major depressive disorder (MDD), and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD); data were collected six months post-exposure to understand sustained chronic impacts. Data were modeled using multiple-regression analyses. Additionally, we included vulnerability and resilience factors in hierarchical regression analyses.Results. Our primary finding is that direct exposure to large scale fires significantly increased the risk for all three mental health disorders, PTSD, MDD and GAD. Indirect exposure, for those who witnessed but did not personally experience the fires, increased the risk for MDD and GAD. Inclusion of vulnerability and resilience factors led to significantly improved prediction of all mental health outcomes. Low socio-economic status, childhood trauma and sleep disturbances were identified as vulnerability factors, while self-reported resilience had a positive effect on mental health. Mindfulness was associated with lower MDD and GAD symptom scores.Conclusion. Overall, our study demonstrates that climate-related extremes such as fires severely impact long-term mental wellbeing. Additionally, pre-existing adverse life events, resilient personality traits and lifestyle factors play an important role in the development of psychopathology after such disasters. Unchecked climate changes of magnitude projected for the latter half of this century risk severely impacting the mental wellbeing of the global population.

Download Full-text

Impacts on Public Health

Research Anthology on Public Health Services, Policies, and Education ◽

10.4018/978-1-7998-8960-1.ch030 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 647-672

Author(s):

Debra N. Weiss-Randall

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Climate Change ◽

Emergency Preparedness ◽

Poverty Reduction ◽

Heat Waves ◽

Health Impacts ◽

Access To Education ◽

Vector Borne Diseases ◽

The Public ◽

Impacts Of Climate Change

Download Full-text

The Influence of Political Ideology and Socioeconomic Vulnerability on Perceived Health Risks of Heat Waves in the Context of Climate Change

Weather Climate and Society ◽

10.1175/wcas-d-17-0105.1 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 10 (4) ◽

pp. 731-746 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Matthew J. Cutler ◽

Jennifer R. Marlon ◽

Peter D. Howe ◽

Anthony Leiserowitz

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Heat Wave ◽

Census Tract ◽

Risk Perceptions ◽

Heat Waves ◽

Public Perceptions ◽

Political Orientation ◽

Health Impacts ◽

Socioeconomic Vulnerability ◽

Census Tract Level

Abstract Vulnerability and resilience to extreme weather hazards are a function of diverse physical, social, and psychological factors. Previous research has focused on individual factors that influence public perceptions of hazards, such as politics, ideology, and cultural worldviews, as well as on socioeconomic and demographic factors that affect geographically based vulnerability, environmental justice, and community resilience. Few studies have investigated individual socioeconomic and racial/ethnic differences in public risk perceptions of the health hazards associated with extreme heat events, which are now increasing due to climate change. This study uses multilevel statistical modeling to investigate individual- and geographic-level (e.g., census tract level and regional) social, economic, and biophysical influences on public perceptions of the adverse health impacts associated with heat waves. Political orientation and climate change beliefs are the strongest predictors of heat wave health risk perceptions; household income also has a relatively strong and consistent effect. Contextual socioeconomic vulnerability, measured with a social vulnerability index at the census tract level, also significantly affects heat wave risk perceptions. The strong influence of political orientation and climate beliefs on perceptions of adverse health impacts from heat waves suggests that ideological predispositions can increase vulnerability to climate change.

Download Full-text