Journal
BMC PUBLIC HEALTH
Volume 14, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
BIOMED CENTRAL LTD
DOI: 10.1186/1471-2458-14-435
Keywords
Climate changes; Emergency hospital admissions; Heatwaves; Mean temperature; Mortality; Time series analysis
Categories
Funding
- Australian Research Council [LP882699]
- Queensland Department of Environment and Resources Management, Department of Community Safety, Queensland Health
- Environmental Protection Agency
- NHMRC [553043]
- Queensland Emergency Medicine Research Foundation (QEMRF)
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Background: This study attempted to develop health risk-based metrics for defining a heatwave in Brisbane, Australia. Methods: Poisson generalised additive model was performed to assess the impact of heatwaves on mortality and emergency hospital admissions (EHAs) in Brisbane. Results: In general, the higher the intensity and the longer the duration of a heatwave, the greater the health impacts. There was no apparent difference in EHAs risk during different periods of a warm season. However, there was a greater risk for mortality in the 2nd half of a warm season than that in the 1st half. While elderly (>= 75 years) were particularly vulnerable to both the EHA and mortality effects of a heatwave, the risk for EHAs also significantly increased for two other age groups (0 - 64 years and 65 - 74 years) during severe heatwaves. Different patterns between cardiorespiratory mortality and EHAs were observed. Based on these findings, we propose the use of a tiered heat warning system based on the health risk of heatwave. Conclusions: Health risk-based metrics are a useful tool for the development of local heatwave definitions. This tool may have significant implications for the assessment of heatwave-related health consequences and development of heatwave response plans and implementation strategies.
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