COMPARING MORTALITY AMONG COAL MINING AND NON-COAL MINING AREAS OF APPALACHIAN WEST VIRGINIA AND VIRGINIA

Recent studies have indicated that adverse health outcomes occur at higher rates in Appalachia, particularly in West Virginia. However, conflicting evidence has been found regarding whether these disparities are due in part to coal mining in Appalachia or to other social, economic, or health factors.

To gain a better understanding of the possible influences on mortality in Appalachia, we computed age-adjusted mortality rates and the associated confidence intervals for coal mining and non-coal mining areas in West Virginia and Virginia. We analyzed total and select cause-specific mortality rates, including respiratory conditions, from 1960-2009 (2012 for VA).

Overall, mortality patterns in WV and VA coal mining areas were similar. For all-cause mortality rates, males in all areas had higher rates than females, and coal mining area in both states had higher mortality rates than non-coal mining counties. VA coal and non-coal mining areas had larger drops (35-370/100,000) in all-cause mortality compared to WV coal mining and non-coal mining areas (7-130/100,000) in the most recent time periods examined. However, VA coal mining areas had higher rates of some causes, including non-malignant respiratory disease, than WV coal mining areas or non-coal mining areas in both states. Higher mortality in coal mining areas was not consistently found across all causes examined, including stroke, where non-coal mining areas had higher mortality.

The results of these analyses indicate that total and some cause-specific mortality rates are elevated in WV and VA coal-mining areas relative to non-coal mining areas. Additional studies of mortality and morbidity are being conducted to better understand the complex interactions of factors and determine the extent to which coal mining is influencing these results.