# Environmental Disasters and Impacts on Health Care Systems

> **NIH NIH P20** · UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO · 2024 · $875,655

## Abstract

Lavin_Gong – Project Summary
How climate-related disasters impact health and regional risk is not fully known. Our long-
term goal is to improve health sector preparedness, resiliency, and health outcomes following
climate-related disasters. Our objectives are threefold: 1) To assess long-term changes in
health outcomes that have been linked with climate-related disasters; 2) to quantify the
relationship between population vulnerabilities in the 7 Vital Cond variables and post-event
disease prevalence changes; and 3) to develop and test a geospatial C-DRAPS to visualize the
regional risk profiles, identify climate-sensitive health indicators, project impacts on health, and
communicate regional community risks with healthcare workers, educators, and community
leaders who care for disaster-affected populations. Our central hypothesis is that incidences of
long-term chronic conditions and vector-borne disease following a climate change-related
disaster are associated with region-specific well-being and environmental health (EH)
conditions. Our aims are: 1) Determine the existing community risks and consequent extra risks
to health arising from climate-related disasters. 2) Determine the independent and joint impacts
of climate-related disasters on the prevalence of HTN, DM, asthma, depression, and vector-
borne diseases up to five years following disasters. 3) Analyze county samples in Aim1.a as
training data to establish a model that quantifies the relationship between variables in the 7 Vital
Conditions of Health and Well-being and post-event disease prevalence changes. This model is
subsequently employed to predict changes in the prevalence of HTN, DM, asthma, depression,
and vector-borne disease following future climate-related disasters within any given U.S. county
based on county-specific variables. Aim 2. Design and validate a GIS-based dashboard for
integrated visualization, analysis, projection, and communication of regional community risks
focusing on population vulnerability indicators, climate indicators, and health indicators
(prevalence of HTN, DM, asthma, depression, vector-borne diseases) after climate-related
disasters. The research is significant as it will predict long-term health impacts of disasters and
exacerbate regional risk profiles that can influence disaster planning and policy, resulting in
innovative approaches to health systems and community preparedness that enhance resiliency.
 The impact of this model will expand the understanding of chronic conditions and vector-
borne disease following FDDs and link the evidence from datasets consistent with the 7 Vital
Conditions of Well-being. The innovative holistic model will combine complex data in one easily
assessable tool, designed to be user-friendly and openly available.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10980345
- **Project number:** 1P20NR021824-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO
- **Principal Investigator:** Roberta Proffitt Lavin
- **Activity code:** P20 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $875,655
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-09-11 → 2027-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10980345

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10980345, Environmental Disasters and Impacts on Health Care Systems (1P20NR021824-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10980345. Licensed CC0.

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