TY - JOUR PY - 2020// TI - The impact of extreme heat and heat waves on emergency ambulance dispatches due to external cause in Shenzhen, China JO - Environmental pollution A1 - Hu, Jing A1 - Wen, Ying A1 - Duan, Yanran A1 - Yan, Siyu A1 - Liao, Yi A1 - Pan, Haibin A1 - Zhu, Jiahui A1 - Yin, Ping A1 - Cheng, Jinquan A1 - Jiang, Hongwei SP - e114156 EP - e114156 VL - 261 IS - N2 - BACKGROUND: Compared to hospital admissions (HAs), emergency ambulance dispatches (EADs) can be considered a real-time outcome for evaluating the public health impacts of ambient temperature.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to assess if temperature has a causal effect on cause-specific EADs and its potential main and added effect in Shenzhen from 2013 to 2017.

METHODS: A distributed lag nonlinear model (DLNM) with quasi-Poisson distribution was applied to quantify the association between temperature and EADs. Likewise, the fraction of EADs attributable to different temperature ranges was calculated to identify extreme temperature ranges affecting population health. We then explored the main and added wave effects of heatwaves.

RESULTS: Ambient temperature showed a U-shaped association with EADs. The minimum risk temperature was 17 °C (16th percentile of the daily mean temperature). Compared with the cold, the relative risk (RR) of heat on EADs presented smaller but the attributable risk larger. The main effects of heatwaves on EADs varied with external causes; and the peak RR of heat on EADs was observed in suicidal behaviors with heatwaves defined as 3 or more days with temperatures above the 75th percentile (RR = 4.53, 95% CI: 1.23-16.68), followed by assault (RR = 2.36, 95% CI: 1.25-4.48) and accidents (RR = 1.72, 95% CI: 1.30-2.28), while the added wave effect was negligible.

CONCLUSIONS: Heat was responsible for a higher proportion of EADs than cold. Most of the increase in health risk during warm season can be simply ascribed to the independent effects of daily temperature occurrences whether it is or not on the heat-wave day. And the main effects of heatwaves on cause-specific EADs showed varied change trends, of which the incidence of suicides seems more susceptible, followed by assault and accidents.

Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 0269-7491 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2020.114156 ID - ref1 ER -