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      The use of an ‘acclimatisation’ heatwave measure to compare temperature-related demand for emergency services in Australia, Botswana, Netherlands, Pakistan, and USA

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          Abstract

          Background

          Heatwaves have been linked to increased risk of mortality and morbidity and are projected to increase in frequency and intensity due to climate change. The current study uses emergency department (ED) data from Australia, Botswana, Netherlands, Pakistan, and the United States of America to evaluate the impact of heatwaves on ED attendances, admissions and mortality.

          Methods

          Routinely collected time series data were obtained from 18 hospitals. Two separate thresholds (≥4 and ≥7) of the acclimatisation excess heat index (EHIaccl) were used to define “hot days”. Analyses included descriptive statistics, independent samples T-tests to determine differences in case mix between hot days and other days, and threshold regression to determine which temperature thresholds correspond to large increases in ED attendances.

          Findings

          In all regions, increases in temperature that did not coincide with time to acclimatise resulted in increases in ED attendances, and the EHIaccl performed in a similar manner. During hot days in California and The Netherlands, significantly more children ended up in the ED, while in Pakistan more elderly people attended. Hot days were associated with more patient admissions in the ages 5–11 in California, 65–74 in Karachi, and 75–84 in The Hague. During hot days in The Hague, patients with psychiatric symptoms were more likely to die. The current study did not identify a threshold temperature associated with particularly large increases in ED demand.

          Interpretation

          The association between heat and ED demand differs between regions. A limitation of the current study is that it does not consider delayed effects or influences of other environmental factors. Given the association between heat and ED use, hospitals and governmental authorities should recognise the demands that heat can place on local health care systems. These demands differ substantially between regions, with Pakistan being the most heavily affected within our study sample.

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          Most cited references16

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          Emissions pathways, climate change, and impacts on California.

          The magnitude of future climate change depends substantially on the greenhouse gas emission pathways we choose. Here we explore the implications of the highest and lowest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change emissions pathways for climate change and associated impacts in California. Based on climate projections from two state-of-the-art climate models with low and medium sensitivity (Parallel Climate Model and Hadley Centre Climate Model, version 3, respectively), we find that annual temperature increases nearly double from the lower B1 to the higher A1fi emissions scenario before 2100. Three of four simulations also show greater increases in summer temperatures as compared with winter. Extreme heat and the associated impacts on a range of temperature-sensitive sectors are substantially greater under the higher emissions scenario, with some interscenario differences apparent before midcentury. By the end of the century under the B1 scenario, heatwaves and extreme heat in Los Angeles quadruple in frequency while heat-related mortality increases two to three times; alpine/subalpine forests are reduced by 50-75%; and Sierra snowpack is reduced 30-70%. Under A1fi, heatwaves in Los Angeles are six to eight times more frequent, with heat-related excess mortality increasing five to seven times; alpine/subalpine forests are reduced by 75-90%; and snowpack declines 73-90%, with cascading impacts on runoff and streamflow that, combined with projected modest declines in winter precipitation, could fundamentally disrupt California's water rights system. Although interscenario differences in climate impacts and costs of adaptation emerge mainly in the second half of the century, they are strongly dependent on emissions from preceding decades.
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            Increasing frequency, intensity and duration of observed global heatwaves and warm spells

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              The 2006 California Heat Wave: Impacts on Hospitalizations and Emergency Department Visits

              Background Climate models project that heat waves will increase in frequency and severity. Despite many studies of mortality from heat waves, few studies have examined morbidity. Objectives In this study we investigated whether any age or race/ethnicity groups experienced increased hospitalizations and emergency department (ED) visits overall or for selected illnesses during the 2006 California heat wave. Methods We aggregated county-level hospitalizations and ED visits for all causes and for 10 cause groups into six geographic regions of California. We calculated excess morbidity and rate ratios (RRs) during the heat wave (15 July to 1 August 2006) and compared these data with those of a reference period (8–14 July and 12–22 August 2006). Results During the heat wave, 16,166 excess ED visits and 1,182 excess hospitalizations occurred statewide. ED visits for heat-related causes increased across the state [RR = 6.30; 95% confidence interval (CI), 5.67–7.01], especially in the Central Coast region, which includes San Francisco. Children (0–4 years of age) and the elderly (≥ 65 years of age) were at greatest risk. ED visits also showed significant increases for acute renal failure, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, electrolyte imbalance, and nephritis. We observed significantly elevated RRs for hospitalizations for heat-related illnesses (RR = 10.15; 95% CI, 7.79–13.43), acute renal failure, electrolyte imbalance, and nephritis. Conclusions The 2006 California heat wave had a substantial effect on morbidity, including regions with relatively modest temperatures. This suggests that population acclimatization and adaptive capacity influenced risk. By better understanding these impacts and population vulnerabilities, local communities can improve heat wave preparedness to cope with a globally warming future.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Role: ConceptualizationRole: Data curationRole: Formal analysisRole: InvestigationRole: MethodologyRole: Project administrationRole: VisualizationRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: ConceptualizationRole: Formal analysisRole: MethodologyRole: SupervisionRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: Data curationRole: ValidationRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: Data curationRole: ValidationRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: Data curationRole: ValidationRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: Data curationRole: ValidationRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: Data curationRole: ValidationRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: ConceptualizationRole: Data curationRole: Formal analysisRole: MethodologyRole: SupervisionRole: ValidationRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: Editor
                Journal
                PLoS One
                PLoS ONE
                plos
                plosone
                PLoS ONE
                Public Library of Science (San Francisco, CA USA )
                1932-6203
                28 March 2019
                2019
                : 14
                : 3
                : e0214242
                Affiliations
                [1 ] Centre for Health Economics Research and Evaluation, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, Australia
                [2 ] Emergency Department, UC Davis Medical Center, Sacramento, California, United States of America
                [3 ] Emergency Department, Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan
                [4 ] Emergency Department, Academic Medical Centre, Amsterdam, Netherlands
                [5 ] Princess Marina Hospital & Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Botswana, Faculty of Medicine, Gaborone, Botswana
                [6 ] Emergency Department, Haaglanden Medical Centre, The Hague, Netherlands
                Tongji University, CHINA
                Author notes

                Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

                [¤a]

                Current address: Market Access Department, AstraZeneca Netherlands, The Hague, Netherlands

                [¤b]

                Current address: Institute of Mountain Emergency Medicine, EURAC Research, Bolzano, Italy

                Author information
                http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1646-9834
                http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1251-3877
                Article
                PONE-D-18-31786
                10.1371/journal.pone.0214242
                6438466
                30921372
                ac8bdaf9-22e1-4cdb-9932-3f916c2611fa
                © 2019 van der Linden et al

                This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

                History
                : 4 November 2018
                : 9 March 2019
                Page count
                Figures: 2, Tables: 4, Pages: 14
                Funding
                Funded by: Haaglanden Medical Center
                Award ID: Funding for open source publication of this study was provided by the Research Fund of Haaglanden Medical Center, 2019.
                Award Recipient :
                Funding for this study was provided through the University of Technology Sydney Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Research Fellowship. Funding for open source publication of this study was provided by the Research Fund of Haaglanden Medical Center, 2019.
                Categories
                Research Article
                Medicine and Health Sciences
                Critical Care and Emergency Medicine
                People and places
                Geographical locations
                Europe
                European Union
                Netherlands
                Medicine and Health Sciences
                Health Care
                Health Statistics
                Morbidity
                People and Places
                Geographical Locations
                Asia
                Pakistan
                People and Places
                Geographical Locations
                Oceania
                Australia
                Medicine and Health Sciences
                Geriatrics
                People and Places
                Population Groupings
                Age Groups
                Elderly
                People and Places
                Geographical Locations
                Africa
                Botswana
                Custom metadata
                Data needed to replicate part of the results of the paper are available from the Harvard Database as DOI: https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/QHPZOX. The full dataset could not be shared due to privacy concerns imposed by HIPAA guidelines.

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                Uncategorized

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