Compound Disasters and Adolescent Mental Health: Increased Primary Health Care Demand After the Overlap of the Covid-19 Pandemic and A Rainfall Disaster in Brazil

Background Biological and meteorological disasters can have negative impacts on the mental health of adolescents. However, little is known about the impact of overlapping disasters. The objective of this study was to estimate the impact of the overlap of biological and meteorological disasters on adolescent mental health. Methods The overlap studied occurred in February 2022, when Petrópolis, Brazil, suffered a meteorological disaster related to rainfall during the biological disaster of the COVID-19 pandemic. The data consisted of the number of visits by adolescents aged 10 to 17 years in which the problem or condition evaluated involved mental health diagnoses in the municipality's Primary Health Care (PHC) services. The monthly rates of health care usage were measured by municipality over the six months following the overlap period, which spanned from February to July 2022. These rates were then compared with those from the first six months of the biological disaster (March–August 2020) and with the same period prior to the disaster (February–July 2018–2019). The Mann–Whitney U test and percentage differences were used to analyze these comparisons. Results A total of 2,591 visits were analyzed, with 36.4% occurring after the overlap. Just over half of the consultations were for male adolescents (54.1%), and most were for adolescents aged 10 to 13 years (64.1%). Consultation rates, by sex and age, were higher after the overlap when compared with the periods before and during the pandemic (p < 0.05). The relative increase in rates was 166.2% higher than in the pre-disaster period and 318.4% higher than during the first six months of the pandemic among older male adolescents aged 14 to 17 years (p < 0.05). Conclusion The overlap of biological and meteorological disasters impacts adolescents' demand for mental health care in PHC. Preparing for and coping with the impacts of disasters must consider the additional pressure on the health system imposed by the mental health needs of affected adolescents.