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Published on: November 1, 2017

Child mortality after Hurricane Katrina

Robert K Kanter1

  • 1Department of Pediatrics, SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY 13210, USA. kanterr@upstate.edu

Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness
|April 15, 2010
PubMed

Insights

Hurricane Katrina

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric health
  • Mortality statistics
  • Public health emergencies

Background:

  • Community disruption impact on child health post-Hurricane Katrina remains unanalyzed.
  • Lack of post-disaster vital statistics necessitates alternative data sources.
  • Assessing pediatric mortality is crucial for understanding health consequences.

Purpose of the Study:

  • Validate newspaper death records as an alternative method for estimating child mortality.
  • Compare pre- and post-Hurricane Katrina child mortality rates in New Orleans.
  • Evaluate the age-specific health impact on children after community disruption.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized local newspaper death reports to estimate pre-Katrina (2004) child mortality.
  • Validated newspaper-derived estimates against Louisiana Department of Health data.
  • Analyzed post-Katrina child mortality rates as a public health indicator.

Main Results:

  • Newspaper-derived mortality estimates are largely valid, with potential underreporting of neonatal rates.
  • Post-Katrina infant mortality rates showed significant declines: 92% for neonates (<28 days) and 57% for postneonatal infants (28 days-1 year).
  • Observed post-Katrina infant mortality declines exceeded pre-Katrina data discrepancies.

Conclusions:

  • Declining infant mortality suggests potential displacement of high-risk infants from the New Orleans area.
  • No evidence of sustained excess child mortality post-Hurricane Katrina.
  • Demographic shifts warrant further study for future public health emergency planning.
Abstract

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