Dataset Information

Evaluation of a heat vulnerability index on abnormally hot days: an environmental public health tracking study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Extreme hot weather conditions have been associated with increased morbidity and mortality, but risks are not evenly distributed throughout the population. Previously, a heat vulnerability index (HVI) was created to geographically locate populations with increased vulnerability to heat in metropolitan areas throughout the United States.

Objectives

We sought to determine whether areas with higher heat vulnerability, as characterized by the HVI, experienced higher rates of morbidity and mortality on abnormally hot days.

Methods

We used Poisson regression to model the interaction of HVI and deviant days (days whose deviation of maximum temperature from the 30-year normal maximum temperature is at or above the 95th percentile) on hospitalization and mortality counts in five states participating in the Environmental Public Health Tracking Network for the years 2000 through 2007.

Results

The HVI was associated with higher hospitalization and mortality rates in all states on both normal days and deviant days. However, associations were significantly stronger (interaction p-value < 0.05) on deviant days for heat-related illness, acute renal failure, electrolyte imbalance, and nephritis in California, heat-related illness in Washington, all-cause mortality in New Mexico, and respiratory hospitalizations in Massachusetts.

Conclusion

Our results suggest that the HVI may be a marker of health vulnerability in general, although it may indicate greater vulnerability to heat in some cases.

SUBMITTER: Reid CE

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3346770 | biostudies-literature | 2012 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Evaluation of a heat vulnerability index on abnormally hot days: an environmental public health tracking study.

Reid Colleen E CE Mann Jennifer K JK Alfasso Ruth R English Paul B PB King Galatea C GC Lincoln Rebecca A RA Margolis Helene G HG Rubado Dan J DJ Sabato Joseph E JE West Nancy L NL Woods Brian B Navarro Kathleen M KM Balmes John R JR

Environmental health perspectives 20120131 5

<h4>Background</h4>Extreme hot weather conditions have been associated with increased morbidity and mortality, but risks are not evenly distributed throughout the population. Previously, a heat vulnerability index (HVI) was created to geographically locate populations with increased vulnerability to heat in metropolitan areas throughout the United States.<h4>Objectives</h4>We sought to determine whether areas with higher heat vulnerability, as characterized by the HVI, experienced higher rates o ...[more]

PMID: 22538066

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Project description:BackgroundA more comprehensive estimate of environmental quality would improve our understanding of the relationship between environmental conditions and human health. An environmental quality index (EQI) for all counties in the U.S. was developed.MethodsThe EQI was developed in four parts: domain identification; data source acquisition; variable construction; and data reduction. Five environmental domains (air, water, land, built and sociodemographic) were recognized. Within each domain, data sources were identified; each was temporally (years 2000-2005) and geographically (county) restricted. Variables were constructed for each domain and assessed for missingness, collinearity, and normality. Domain-specific data reduction was accomplished using principal components analysis (PCA), resulting in domain-specific indices. Domain-specific indices were then combined into an overall EQI using PCA. In each PCA procedure, the first principal component was retained. Both domain-specific indices and overall EQI were stratified by four rural-urban continuum codes (RUCC). Higher values for each index were set to correspond to areas with poorer environmental quality.ResultsConcentrations of included variables differed across rural-urban strata, as did within-domain variable loadings, and domain index loadings for the EQI. In general, higher values of the air and sociodemographic indices were found in the more metropolitan areas and the most thinly populated areas have the lowest values of each of the domain indices. The less-urbanized counties (RUCC 3) demonstrated the greatest heterogeneity and range of EQI scores (-4.76, 3.57) while the thinly populated strata (RUCC 4) contained counties with the most positive scores (EQI score ranges from -5.86, 2.52).ConclusionThe EQI holds promise for improving our characterization of the overall environment for public health. The EQI describes the non-residential ambient county-level conditions to which residents are exposed and domain-specific EQI loadings indicate which of the environmental domains account for the largest portion of the variability in the EQI environment. The EQI was constructed for all counties in the United States, incorporating a variety of data to provide a broad picture of environmental conditions. We undertook a reproducible approach that primarily utilized publically-available data sources.

Dataset Information

Evaluation of a heat vulnerability index on abnormally hot days: an environmental public health tracking study.

Background

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion

Publications

Evaluation of a heat vulnerability index on abnormally hot days: an environmental public health tracking study.

Similar Datasets

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