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NEW YORK CITY, March 2 -- The September 11 terrorist attacks caused many Manhattan residents to smoke and drink more, even after six months had passed, according to a new study by the Academy's Center for Urban Epidemiologic Studies (CUES). The findings appear in the current issue of The American Journal of Public Health.
Researchers collected data from two random-digit-dial telephone surveys conducted in Manhattan one month and six months after the attacks. Survey subjects lived below 110th Street, extending to Manhattan's southern tip. CUES researchers found that in October 2001, almost 31 percent of the 988 people surveyed had increased use of cigarettes, alcohol or marijuana. After six months, in March 2002, 27 percent of the 854 people surveyed said they were smoking and drinking more than before the terrorists struck.
???These sustained increases in substance use following the September 11 terrorist attacks suggest potential long-term health consequences as a result of disasters,??? wrote lead author and CUES Director David Vlahov, Ph.D., and colleagues. Considering that a prior CUES study showed post-traumatic stress disorder actually declined in Manhattan six months after September 11, some residents who initially turned to smoking and drinking to cope with stress may have developed addictions even as their stress declined, the authors wrote.
Other co-authors include Sandro Galea, M.D., Dr. P.H., M.P.H., and Jennifer Ahern, M.P.H., both of the Academy's CUES, and Heidi Resnick, Ph.D., and Dean Kilpatrick, Ph.D., both of the National Crime Victims' Research and Treatment Center at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. The study was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Institute on Mental Health, The New York Community Trust and MetLife Foundation.
The American Journal of Public Health is the monthly journal of the American Public Health Association, the oldest and largest organization of public health professionals in the world. The New York Academy of Medicine is a non-profit organization founded in 1847 that is dedicated to enhancing the health of the public through research, education and advocacy, with a particular focus on disadvantaged urban populations.
Posted on March 2, 2004
Contact:
Andrew J. Martin
Director of Communications
The New York Academy of Medicine
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New York, New York 10029
212-822-7285
amartin@nyam.org
Reporters: to arrange interviews with NYAM medical and urban health experts, contact
Andrew J. Martin, Director of Communications
212-822-7285 / amartin@nyam.org
The 2012-2013 Duncan Clark Lecture - The Affordable Care Act: An Insider’s View
Featured Speaker: Sherry Glied, PhD, former Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
November 19, 2012 - The NYAM Section on Health Care Delivery welcomes Sherry Glied, PhD, former Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, who will deliver the 2012-2013 Duncan Clark Lecture on "The Affordable Care Act: An Insider's View."
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The New York Academy of Medicine with support from the New York State Heath Foundation released a new report, Federal Health Care Reform in New York State: A Population Health Perspective.
This report identifies opportunities that build on both the Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act (ACA) and New York’s ongoing efforts toward improving the health of its 19 million residents.
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Read report
