1. Risk, Attributable Fraction and Attributable Number of Cause-Specific Heat-Related Emergency Hospital Admissions in Switzerland.
- Author
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Schulte, Florian, Röösli, Martin, and Ragettli, Martina S.
- Abstract
Objectives: We assessed the relationship between heat and emergency hospital admissions (EHAs) in Switzerland using clinically relevant metrics. Methods: Applying distributed lag non-linear models, we investigated temperatureadmission associations between May and September 1998--2019 for various disease groups, by age class and gender. We estimated the relative risk (RR) for moderate (29°C) and extreme (34°C) daily maximum temperatures relative to disease-specific optimum temperature, and calculated attributable fractions (AFs) for hot days and the following week. We also calculated the total number of heat-related EHAs. Results: We attributed 31,387 (95% confidence interval: 21,567--40,408) EHAs to aboveoptimal temperatures, 1.1% (0.7%--1.4%) of the total. Extreme temperatures increased the EHA risk for mental, infectious and neurological diseases. We observed particularly high AFs due to extreme heat for dehydration (85.9%, 95% CI: 82.4%--88.8%) and acute kidney injury (AKI, 56.1%, 95% CI: 45.3%--64.7%). While EHA risk generally increased with age, we also found high RRs for infectious diseases in children (0--15 years) and AKI in young adults (15--64 years). Conclusion: Hot weather increases the EHA risk in Switzerland. Therefore a comprehensive clinical and public health response is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2024
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