The study examines the impact of natural disasters on suicide rates

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.November 11, 2020

Disasters such as hurricanes and tornadoes occur with increasing frequency and severity around the world. In addition to impacting local communities, infrastructure and the economy, these disasters can also lead to severe emotional distress and anxiety for those who live in their path.

A team of researchers, including Jennifer Horney of the University of Delaware, founding director of the epidemiology program at the College of Health Sciences, examined the impact of 281 natural disasters on suicide rates over a 12-year period.

Horney and others looked at data on disaster declarations and found that overall suicide rates increased by 23 percent from pre- and post-disaster rates. According to an article published in an article published on The Journal of Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention.

This discovery is important, I think, because they may have preventable deaths with better preparedness and response to disasters. It is particularly important to consider the risk of suicide as those with the most existing social vulnerabilities live in areas at greatest risk of being damaged by the disaster. “

Jennifer Horney, College of Health Sciences, University of Delaware

The researchers surveyed counties in the continental United States with a single major disaster declaration between 2003 and 2015, based on data from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). For each county, suicide rates were estimated for three 12-month periods before and after the disaster. Although FEMA provides disaster statements for nine types of disasters, storms, floods, and hurricanes have occurred frequently enough to be included in the study.

For all disaster types combined as well as individually for severe storms, floods and ice storms, the researchers found that the suicide rate increased in both the first and second year after a disaster, and then decreased in the third year. The floods saw suicide rates rise by nearly 18% in the first year and 61% in the second year before falling to the base rate.

Conversely, the suicide rate following hurricanes increased in the first year – leaping 26% – then returned to baseline in the second year. “Hurricane-hit counties saw the biggest increase in suicide rates in the first year, which makes sense because it’s the most prevalent type of disaster we’ve looked at,” Horney said.

The study only looked at counties with a single disaster declaration and excluded those with multiple disaster episodes. Therefore, “these data are likely to underestimate the association between disaster exposure and suicide because we know there are a lot of additional mental health impacts from repetitive losses,” Horney said.

The findings suggest the need to make more mental health resources available to address the challenges that can arise after a natural disaster, Horney said. Policy changes should also take into account the duration of these funding resources.

“From a political perspective, we can use this data to say that we should really extend funding for mental health services at least two years after a disaster because people are clearly still not healed, even to their old normal, after one year, when this type of funding typically expires, “he said. “The goal cannot be to recover the pre-disaster status quo. We want people affected by disasters to recover and be more resilient to the mental health impacts of disasters than they were before.”