High-Heat Days and Presentations to Emergency Departments in Regional Victoria, Australia

Datos Bibliográficos

ID15465355
AutoresJessie Adams (0000-0003-1553-2942, National Centre for Farmer Health, Western District Health Service, Hamilton, VIC 3300, Australia, autor de correspondencia), Susan Brumby (0000-0001-6332-3374, National Centre for Farmer Health, Western District Health Service, Hamilton, VIC 3300, Australia), Kate Kloot (0000-0003-2889-9639, Deakin University), Tim Baker (0000-0002-6423-9948, Deakin University), Mohammadreza Mohebbi (0000-0001-9713-7211, Deakin University)
Año2022
Volumen19
Número4
Páginas2131-2131
Fecha de publicación2022-02-14
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaInternational Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1661-7827 • E-ISSN: 1660-4601
EditorialMultidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (PUBLISHER • CH)
DOI10.3390/ijerph19042131
PMID35206318
OpenAlexW4213174750
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2
Referencias citadas28

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

Agriculture · Archaeology · Cohort · Cohort study · Emergency department · Environmental health · Geography · Government (linguistics · Heat illness · Meteorology · Metropolitan area · Population · Socioeconomics · Climate Change and Health Impacts · Demography · Medicine · Nursing · Thermal Regulation in Medicine · Thermoregulation and physiological responses