Climate resilience adaptation and psychiatric emergency services utilization during extreme heat in Boston, MA: a difference-in-differences analysis.

ABSTRACT:

Background

A growing body of literature shows that extreme heat events increase the risk of adverse mental health outcomes. However, the effectiveness of adaptation efforts has not been evaluated to date. This study investigates the implementation of two citywide interventions on extreme heat events in Boston, Massachusetts, focusing on psychiatric emergency services use.

Methods

Using a quasi-experimental study design with a difference-in-differences estimator, we investigate how interventions for excess heat and heat events may change daily psychiatric emergency services use: 1) heat advisory alerts and 2) a climate resilience adaptation plan. We flagged excess heat (maximum heat index ≥90 °F) and heat events (≥2 consecutive hours of heat index ≥100 °F). We linked heat exp

SUBMITTER: Black-Ingersoll F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12908974 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature