Tropical Cyclone Exposure and Psychoactive Drug–Related Death Rates

In the US during 1988 to 2019, was county-level tropical cyclone exposure associated with increases in county-level psychoactive drug–related death rates in subsequent months?In this case-control study of 798 691 psychoactive drug–related deaths in 1258 counties that experienced tropical cyclones from 1988 to 2019, each additional cyclone-exposed day per month was associated with a 3.84% increase in death rates in the month of cyclone exposure and a 3.76% increase in the month after.Among US counties exposed to tropical cyclones from 1988 to 2019, each additional cyclone-exposed day per month was associated with an increase in psychoactive drug–related death rates in the months following exposure.

Corresponding Author: Raenita Spriggs, MPH, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, 722 W 168th St, #1105, New York, NY 10032 (r.spriggs@columbia.edu).

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