Abstract

Background:

Tropical cyclone epidemiology can be advanced through exposure assessment methods that are comprehensive and consistent across space and time, as these facilitate multiyear, multistorm studies. Further, an understanding of patterns in and between exposure metrics that are based on specific hazards of the storm can help in designing tropical cyclone epidemiological research.

Objectives:

a) Provide an open-source data set for tropical cyclone exposure assessment for epidemiological research; and b) investigate patterns and agreement between county-level assessments of tropical cyclone exposure based on different storm hazards.

Methods:

We created an open-source data set with data at the county level on exposure to four tropical cyclone hazards: peak sustained wind, rainfall, flooding, and tornadoes. The data cover all eastern U.S. counties for all land-falling or near-land Atlantic basin storms, covering 1996–2011 for all metrics and up to 1988–2018 for specific metrics. We validated measurements against other data sources and investigated patterns and agreement among binary exposure classifications based on these metrics, as well as compared them to use of distance from the storm’s track, which has been used as a proxy for exposure in some epidemiological studies.

Results:

Our open-source data set was typically consistent with data from other sources, and we present and discuss areas of disagreement and other caveats. Over the study period and area, tropical cyclones typically brought different hazards to different counties. Therefore, when comparing exposure assessment between different hazard-specific metrics, agreement was usually low, as it also was when comparing exposure assessment based on a distance-based proxy measurement and any of the hazard-specific metrics.

Discussion:

Our results provide a multihazard data set that can be leveraged for epidemiological research on tropical cyclones, as well as insights that can inform the design and analysis for tropical cyclone epidemiological research. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP6976

 抽象的

 背景：

热带气旋流行病学可以通过跨空间和时间全面且一致的暴露评估方法来推进，因为这些方法有利于多年、多风暴研究。此外，了解基于风暴特定危害的暴露指标内部和之间的模式有助于设计热带气旋流行病学研究。

 目标：

a ) 为流行病学研究的热带气旋暴露评估提供开源数据集； b ) 调查基于不同风暴危害的县级热带气旋暴露评估之间的模式和一致性。

 方法：

我们创建了一个开源数据集，其中包含县级有关四种热带气旋危害的数据：峰值持续风、降雨、洪水和龙卷风。这些数据涵盖美国东部所有县的所有陆地或近陆大西洋盆地风暴，涵盖 1996 年至 2011 年的所有指标，以及截至 1988 年至 2018 年的具体指标。我们根据其他数据源验证了测量结果，并根据这些指标研究了二元暴露分类之间的模式和一致性，并将它们与使用距风暴路径的距离进行了比较，后者已在一些流行病学研究中用作暴露的代理。

 结果：

我们的开源数据集通常与其他来源的数据一致，我们提出并讨论存在分歧的领域和其他注意事项。在研究期间和区域内，热带气旋通常会给不同的县带来不同的危害。因此，当比较不同特定危害指标之间的暴露评估时，一致性通常较低，在比较基于距离的代理测量和任何特定危害指标的暴露评估时也是如此。

 讨论：