Spatiotemporal patterns of youth isolation and loneliness in the US: a geospatial analysis of Crisis Text Line data (2016-2022).

Unlabelled: In 2021, the US Surgeon General issued a national advisory citing an epidemic of isolation and loneliness. Even before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, approximately half of people in the US reported experiencing measurable levels of loneliness. Despite localized and select cross-sectional studies highlighting even higher increases in isolation/loneliness during the COVID-19 pandemic, additional research is needed, particularly for youth and young adults.

Structural influences on psychiatric emergency department visits among racial and ethnic minority youth in North Carolina: A neighborhood-level analysis.

Mental health continues to be a growing crisis for children, adolescents, and young adults. Yet, increasing trends in subgroups are not uniform, and key differences exist across geographic, racial, and age groups. Few studies examine structural factors like economic and racial inequality, important upstream structural inequities that impact mental health.

A spatial analysis of power-dependent medical equipment and extreme weather risk in the southeastern United States.

Extreme weather events endanger critical health infrastructure, and many individuals rely on infrastructure to meet their basic needs, such as heat, water, and medical devices. The purpose of this study is to identify spatially explicit at-risk populations for power outages due to these extreme weather events. To accomplish this, we used the HHS emPOWER Emergency Planning Dataset, which was created to help public health authorities plan for and address the needs of communities.

Disparities in spatiotemporal clustering of maternal mental health conditions before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mounting evidence indicates the worsening of maternal mental health conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Mental health conditions are the leading cause of preventable death during the perinatal and postpartum periods. Our study sought to detect space-time patterns in the distribution of maternal mental health conditions in pregnant women before (2016-2019) and during (2020-2021) the COVID-19 pandemic in North Carolina, USA.

Association of Psychiatric Emergency Visits and Warm Ambient Temperature during Pregnancy: A Time-Stratified Case-Crossover Study.

Background: Acute exposure to high ambient temperature and heat waves during the warm season has been linked with psychiatric disorders. Emerging research has shown that pregnant people, due to physiological and psychological changes, may be more sensitive to extreme heat, and acute exposure has been linked to increased risk of pregnancy complications; however, few studies have examined psychiatric complications.

Objective: Our objective was to examine the association between acute exposure to warm ambient temperatures and emergency department (ED) visits for mental disorders during pregnancy.

Crisis response in Texas youth impacted by Hurricane Harvey: A difference-in-differences analysis.

Background: Hurricane Harvey was the second costliest storm to impact the U.S. More research is needed to understand the mental health consequences of these extreme events in children and adolescents extending beyond the acute recovery period.

Short-term changes in mental health help-seeking behaviors following exposure to multiple social stressors and a natural disaster.

In 2020, unprecedented circumstances led to significant mental health consequences. Individuals faced mental health stressors that extended beyond the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, including widespread social unrest following the murder of George Floyd, an intense hurricane season in the Atlantic, and the politically divisive 2020 election. The objective of this analysis was to consider changes in help-seeking behavior following exposure to multiple social stressors and a natural disaster.

A Difference-In Difference Analysis of the South Carolina 2015 Extreme Floods and the Association with Maternal Health.

Research documenting the public health impacts of natural disasters often focuses on adults and children. Little research has examined the influence of extreme events, like floods, on maternal health, and less has examined the effect of disasters on maternal indicators like severe maternal morbidity (SMM) or unexpected outcomes of labor and delivery that result in significant short-or long-term consequences to a woman's health. The aim of this study is to identify the impacts of the 2015 flood events on maternal health outcomes in South Carolina, USA.

Advancing Understanding on Greenspace and Mental Health in Young People.

Mental distress among young people has increased in recent years. Research suggests that greenspace may benefit mental health. The objective of this exploratory study is to further understanding of place-based differences (i.

Mapping high-risk clusters and identifying place-based risk factors of mental health burden in pregnancy.

Purpose: Despite affecting up to 20% of women and being the leading cause of preventable deaths during the perinatal and postpartum period, maternal mental health conditions are chronically understudied. This study is the first to identify spatial patterns in perinatal mental health conditions, and relate these patterns to place-based social and environmental factors that drive cluster development.

Methods: We performed spatial clustering analysis of emergency department (ED) visits for perinatal mood and anxiety disorders (PMAD), severe mental illness (SMI), and maternal mental disorders of pregnancy (MDP) using the Poisson model in SatScan from 2016 to 2019 in North Carolina.

Assessing the relationship between cyanobacterial blooms and respiratory-related hospital visits: Green bay, Wisconsin 2017-2019.

Potential acute and chronic human health effects associated with exposure to cyanobacteria and cyanotoxins, including respiratory symptoms, are an understudied public health concern. We examined the relationship between estimated cyanobacteria biomass and the frequency of respiratory-related hospital visits for residents living near Green Bay, Lake Michigan, Wisconsin during 2017-2019. Remote sensing data from the Cyanobacteria Assessment Network was used to approximate cyanobacteria exposure through creation of a metric for cyanobacteria chlorophyll-a (Chl).

Acute Health Effects of Wildfire Smoke Exposure During a Compound Event: A Case-Crossover Study of the 2016 Great Smoky Mountain Wildfires.

In 2016, unprecedented intense wildfires burned over 150,000 acres in the southern Appalachian Mountains in the United States. Smoke from these fires greatly impacted the region and exposure to this smoke was significant. A bidirectional case-crossover design was applied to assess the relationship between PM (a surrogate for wildfire smoke) exposure and respiratory- and cardiovascular-related emergency department (ED) visits in Western North Carolina during these events.

Socio-Environmental Determinants of Mental and Behavioral Disorders in Youth: A Machine Learning Approach.

Growing evidence indicates that extreme environmental conditions in summer months have an adverse impact on mental and behavioral disorders (MBD), but there is limited research looking at youth populations. The objective of this study was to apply machine learning approaches to identify key variables that predict MBD-related emergency room (ER) visits in youths in select North Carolina cities among adolescent populations. Daily MBD-related ER visits, which totaled over 42,000 records, were paired with daily environmental conditions, as well as sociodemographic variables to determine if certain conditions lead to higher vulnerability to exacerbated mental health disorders.

Cascading disasters and mental health: The February 2021 winter storm and power crisis in Texas, USA.

In February 2021, the state of Texas and large parts of the US were affected by a severe cold air outbreak and winter weather event. This event resulted in large-scale power outages and cascading impacts, including limited access to potable water, multiple days without electricity, and large-scale infrastructure damage. Little is known about the mental health implications of these events, as most research has predominantly focused on the mental health effects of exposure to hurricanes, wildfires, or other natural disasters that are more commonly found in the summer months.

Examining Hurricane Ida's Impact on Mental Health: Results From a Quasi-Experimental Analysis.

Limited research has evaluated the mental health effects during compounding disasters (e.g., a hurricane occurring during a pandemic), and few studies have examined post-disaster mental health with alternative data sources like crisis text lines.

Severe Maternal Morbidity in Georgia, 2009-2020.

Background: The increasing focus of population surveillance and research on maternal-and not only fetal and infant-health outcomes is long overdue. The United States maternal mortality rate is higher than any other high-income country, and Georgia is among the highest rates in the country. Severe maternal morbidity (SMM) is conceived of as a "near miss" for maternal mortality, is 50 times more common than maternal death, and efforts to systematically monitor SMM rates in populations have increased in recent years.

Association Between Perinatal Mental Health and Pregnancy and Neonatal Complications: A Retrospective Birth Cohort Study.

Background: Maternal mental health as an important precursor to reproductive and neonatal complications remains understudied in the United States, particularly in the Southeastern region, despite high medical costs, maternal morbidity, and infant burden. This study sought to estimate the incidence of perinatal mental health disorders and the associated increased risk of leading pregnancy and infant complications.

Methods: A population-based retrospective birth cohort of childbirth hospitalizations and readmissions was constructed for women in South Carolina, 1999 to 2017.