Risk, Attributable Fraction and Attributable Number of Cause-Specific Heat-Related Emergency Hospital Admissions in Switzerland

Int J Public Health. 2024 Oct 7:69:1607349. doi: 10.3389/ijph.2024.1607349. eCollection 2024.

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 temperature-admission 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 above-optimal 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.

Keywords: attributable risk; emergency hospital admissions; heat-related diseases; hot weather; morbidity.

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Child
  • Child, Preschool
  • Emergency Service, Hospital* / statistics & numerical data
  • Female
  • Hospitalization* / statistics & numerical data
  • Hot Temperature / adverse effects
  • Humans
  • Infant
  • Infant, Newborn
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Risk Factors
  • Switzerland / epidemiology
  • Young Adult

Grants and funding

The authors declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This study was funded by the Federal Office of Public Health (grant number 3727), and the cantonal health departments of Vaud and Ticino.