Abstract
Most previous studies have focused on the association between acute myocardial function (AMI) and temperature by gender and age. Recently, however, concern has also arisen about those most susceptible to the effects of temperature according to socioeconomic status (SES). The objective of this study was to determine the effect of heat and cold on hospital admissions for AMI by subpopulations (gender, age, living area, and individual SES) in South Korea. The Korea National Health Insurance (KNHI) database was used to examine the effect of heat and cold on hospital admissions for AMI during 2004–2012. We analyzed the increase in AMI hospital admissions both above and below a threshold temperature using Poisson generalized additive models (GAMs) for hot, cold, and warm weather. The Medicaid group, the lowest SES group, had a significantly higher RR of 1.37 (95% CI: 1.07–1.76) for heat and 1.11 (95% CI: 1.04–1.20) for cold among subgroups, while also showing distinctly higher risk curves than NHI for both hot and cold weather. In additions, females, older age group, and those living in urban areas had higher risks from hot and cold temperatures than males, younger age group, and those living in rural areas.
Highlights
Scientists have suggested that most of the human health effects of climate change will be adverse [1,2]
We considered potential confounders such as long-term trends using the calendar year and the day of the week because hospital admissions have unique day patterns, with the highest numbers occurring on Monday and the lowest numbers observed on Saturday, Sunday, and holidays
We focused on evaluating temperature-associated acute myocardial function (AMI) hospital admissions by individual insurance type and premium based on the Korea National Health Insurance (KNHI) data, which covers the general Korean population
Summary
Scientists have suggested that most of the human health effects of climate change will be adverse [1,2]. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has highlighted the many effects of temperature variations on human health, including the effects on temperature-sensitive chronic diseases [3]. Several studies have shown the effect of both high and low temperatures on AMI hospital admissions [8,9,10,11,12] and mortality [7,13,14,15]. In an extensive review of prior studies, showed that both hot and cold weather had negative effects on the short-term AMI risk [16].
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More From: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
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