Association between Temperature and Emergency Room Visits for Cardiorespiratory Diseases, Metabolic Syndrome-Related Diseases, and Accidents in Metropolitan Taipei

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 9; no. 6; p. e99599
• Main Authors: Wang, Yu-Chun, Lin, Yu-Kai
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 16.06.2014; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Accidents; Accidents - statistics & numerical data; Air pollution; Air Pollution - statistics & numerical data; Ambient temperature; Analysis; Asthma; Biology and Life Sciences; Cardiovascular disease; Cardiovascular diseases; Cardiovascular Diseases - epidemiology; Cerebrovascular diseases; Chronic kidney failure; Climate; Cold; Confidence Intervals; Confounding Factors (Epidemiology); Coronary artery disease; Daily temperatures; Diabetes mellitus; Earth Sciences; Emergencies; Emergency medical care; Emergency medical services; Emergency Service, Hospital - utilization; Epidemiology; Health insurance; Health risks; Heart diseases; High temperature; Hospital emergency services; Hospitals, Urban - utilization; Humans; Hypertension; Insurance, Health, Reimbursement - statistics & numerical data; International Classification of Diseases; Ischemia; Low temperature; Medical care utilization; Medicine and Health Sciences; Metabolic disorders; Metabolic syndrome; Metabolic Syndrome - epidemiology; Models, Theoretical; Nonlinear Dynamics; Outdoor air quality; Renal failure; Respiration Disorders - epidemiology; Respiratory tract; Risk; Taiwan; Temperature; Temperature effects; Time Factors; Vascular diseases
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0099599

This study evaluated risks of the emergency room visits (ERV) for cerebrovascular diseases, heart diseases, ischemic heart disease, hypertensive diseases, chronic renal failure (CRF), diabetes mellitus (DM), asthma, chronic airway obstruction not elsewhere classified (CAO), and accidents associated with the ambient temperature from 2000 to 2009 in metropolitan Taipei. The distributed lag non-linear model was used to estimate the cumulative relative risk (RR) and confidence interval (CI) of cause-specific ERV associated with daily temperature from lag 0 to lag 3 after controlling for potential confounders. This study identified that temperatures related to the lowest risk of ERV was 26 °C for cerebrovascular diseases, 18 °C for CRF, DM, and accidents, and 30 °C for hypertensive diseases, asthma, and CAO. These temperatures were used as the reference temperatures to measure RR for the corresponding diseases. A low temperature (14°C) increased the ERV risk for cerebrovascular diseases, hypertensive diseases, and asthma, with respective cumulative 4-day RRs of 1.56 (95% CI: 1.23, 1.97), 1.78 (95% CI: 1.37, 2.34), and 2.93 (95% CI: 1.26, 6.79). The effects were greater on, or after, lag one. At 32°C, the cumulative 4-day RR for ERV was significant for CRF (RR = 2.36; 95% CI: 1.33, 4.19) and accidents (RR = 1.23; 95% CI: 1.14, 1.33) and the highest RR was seen on lag 0 for CRF (RR = 1.69; 95% CI: 1.01, 3.58), DM (RR = 1.69; 95% CI: 1.09, 2.61), and accidents (RR = 1.19; 95% CI: 1.11, 1.27). Higher temperatures are associated with the increased ERV risks for CRF, DM, and accidents and lower temperatures with the increased ERV risks for cerebrovascular diseases, hypertensive diseases, and asthma in the subtropical metropolitan.