TheDeepwater HorizonOil Spill and Physical Health among Adult Women in Southern Louisiana: The Women and Their Children’s Health (WaTCH) Study

Abstract

Background:The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill (DHOS) is the largest oil spill in U.S. history, negatively impacting Gulf Coast residents and the surrounding ecosystem. To date, no studies have been published concerning physical health outcomes associated with the DHOS in the general community.Objectives:We characterized individual DHOS exposure using survey data and examined the association between DHOS exposure and physical health.Methods:Baseline data from 2,126 adult women residing in southern Louisiana and enrolled in the Women and Their Children’s Health study were analyzed. Exploratory factor analysis was used to characterize DHOS exposure. Odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals for the associations between DHOS exposure and physical health symptoms were estimated using multivariate logistic regression.Results:A two-factor solution was identified as the best fit for DHOS exposure: physical–environmental exposure and economic exposure. High physical–environmental exposure was significantly associated with all of the physical health symptoms, with the strongest associations for burning in nose, throat, or lungs (OR = 4.73; 95% CI: 3.10, 7.22), sore throat (OR = 4.66; 95% CI: 2.89, 7.51), dizziness (OR = 4.21; 95% CI: 2.69, 6.58), and wheezing (OR = 4.20; 95% CI: 2.86, 6.17). Women who had high-economic exposure were significantly more likely to report wheezing (OR = 1.92; 95% CI: 1.32, 2.79); headaches (OR = 1.81; 95% CI: 1.41, 2.58); watery, burning, itchy eyes (OR = 1.61; 95% CI: 1.20, 2.16); and stuffy, itchy, runny nose (OR = 1.56; 95% CI: 1.16, 2.08).Conclusions:Among southern Louisiana women, both physical–environmental and economic exposure to the DHOS were associated with an increase in self-reported physical health outcomes. Additional longitudinal studies of this unique cohort are needed to elucidate the impact of the DHOS on short- and long-term human health.Citation:Peres LC, Trapido E, Rung AL, Harrington DJ, Oral E, Fang Z, Fontham E, Peters ES. 2016. The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and physical health among adult women in southern Louisiana: the Women and Their Children’s Health (WaTCH) study. Environ Health Perspect 124:1208–1213; http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1510348

Untangling the disaster-depression knot: The role of social ties after Deepwater Horizon

“…Details of the study are presented elsewhere. 5,31 Briefly, women were randomly recruited through an address-based sampling frame. Women were eligible to participate if they were between 18 and 80 years old and lived in the study area at the time of the oil spill.…”

Individual-level exposure to disaster, neighborhood environmental characteristics, and their independent and combined associations with depressive symptoms in women

“…Eligibility criteria for women of the WaTCH Study included being a female between 18 and 80 years old and residence in southeastern Louisiana at the time of the DHOS (April 20, 2010). Sampling methods and participant recruitment were described in previous publications [27,31]. The WaTCH Study response rate of 45% [31] was acceptable based on the American Association of Public Opinion’s standard [32].…”

“…Sampling methods and participant recruitment were described in previous publications [27,31]. The WaTCH Study response rate of 45% [31] was acceptable based on the American Association of Public Opinion’s standard [32]. Though there was no data available on the characteristics of non-respondents, we compared the WaTCH population to the source population of southern Louisiana residents using 2010 U.S. Census and American Community Survey estimates data (Table S1).…”

Post-deepwater horizon blowout seafood consumption patterns and community-specific levels of concern for selected chemicals among children in Mobile County, Alabama

“…(Fitzgerald and Gohlke, 2014;Evans et al, 2015;Hall et al, 2008;Evans and Crumley, 2005) Since the coastal versus inland children consume different types of seafood, future studies may be needed to assess MeHg levels in the coastal population. The overall response rate in the study was about 60% which is two to three times higher than the response rates in other DWH oil spill studies (60% vs 39%) (Wilson et al, 2015); 60% vs. 14.9% (Peres et al, 2016) and similar to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)-funded Community Assessment for Public Health Emergency Response (CASPER) surveys. (Buttke et al, 2012) It was not feasible to evaluate the seafood consumption of children whose parents (∼40%) had not responded to the survey.…”