Impacts of Ambient Temperature on Acute Myocardial Infarction in Central Coast of Vietnam

Abstract

Background/Aim: Little research has been undertaken in the field of climate change and human health in developing countries with a tropical climate. Vietnam is one of the countries most affected by climate change, but few studies have focused on the health effects of climate variation/change for its inhabitants. This research aimed to examine the seasonality of hospital admissions (HAs) of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and association between temperature variation and AMI HAs in the Central Coast of Vietnam. Methods: Information from all 3328 local cases of AMI HAs was collected from the three biggest hospitals in Thua Thien Hue (TTH-1274), Khanh Hoa (KH-1342) and Quang Binh (QB-712) provinces from 2008 to 2015. Data on weather and air pollution were obtained from the authorised national centres of the Vietnamese Government. Generalised linear modelling was used to assess the association between temperature and AMI after adjustment for population, long term trend, air pollutants (PM10, PM2.5, NO2 and O3), and other meteorological variables (relative humidity, air pressure and wind speed). Results: The incidence of AMI was higher in winter than summer: rate ratio is 1.32 (95% CI: 1.12-1.57) and 1.47 (95%CI: 1.10-1.99) for TTH and QB respectively; but, there was no such significant difference in KH. Moreover, in TTH, for each 1oC increase, the AMI HAs rate decreases by 0.03 (95%CI: 0.02-0.05); and similarly for QB was 0.02 (95%CI: 0.01-0.04). Conclusions: Hospital admission rate of AMI was higher in winter than summer for the tropical monsoon climate regions (TTH and QB) while there was no significant difference for a tropical savanna climate region (KH). Temperature was a significant predictor for AMI HAs rate in tropical monsoon climate regions but not for tropical savanna climate. Further research is warranted to evaluate how the pattern of AMI will change as climate change proceeds in Vietnam.