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High-Heat Days and Presentations to Emergency Departments in Regional Victoria, Australia.
- Source :
-
International journal of environmental research and public health [Int J Environ Res Public Health] 2022 Feb 14; Vol. 19 (4). Date of Electronic Publication: 2022 Feb 14. - Publication Year :
- 2022
-
Abstract
- Heat kills more Australians than any other natural disaster. Previous Australian research has identified increases in Emergency Department presentations in capital cities; however, little research has examined the effects of heat in rural/regional locations. This retrospective cohort study aimed to determine if Emergency Department (ED) presentations across the south-west region of Victoria, Australia, increased on high-heat days (1 February 2017 to 31 January 2020) using the Rural Acute Hospital Data Register (RAHDaR). The study also explored differences in presentations between farming towns and non-farming towns. High-heat days were defined as days over the 95th temperature percentile. International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Tenth Revision, Australian Modification (ICD-10-AM) codes associated with heat-related illness were identified from previous studies. As the region has a large agricultural sector, a framework was developed to identify towns estimated to have 70% or more of the population involved in farming. Overall, there were 61,631 presentations from individuals residing in the nine Local Government Areas. Of these presentations, 3064 (5.0%) were on days of high-heat, and 58,567 (95.0%) were of days of non-high-heat. Unlike previous metropolitan studies, ED presentations in rural south-west Victoria decrease on high-heat days. This decrease was more prominent in the farming cohort; a potential explanation for this may be behavioural adaption.
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 1660-4601
- Volume :
- 19
- Issue :
- 4
- Database :
- MEDLINE
- Journal :
- International journal of environmental research and public health
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 35206318
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19042131