The Impact of Heat Waves on Emergency Department Admissions in Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S.A.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Davis RE
PROVIDER: S-EPMC6068980 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jul
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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The Impact of Heat Waves on Emergency Department Admissions in Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S.A.
Davis Robert E RE Novicoff Wendy M WM
International journal of environmental research and public health 20180707 7
Heat waves have been linked to increases in emergency-related morbidity, but more research is needed on the demographic and disease-specific aspects of these morbidities. Using a case-crossover approach, over 700,000 daily emergency department hospital admissions in Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S.A. from 2005⁻2016 are compared between warm season heat wave and non-heat wave periods. Heat waves are defined based on the exceedance, for at least three consecutive days, of two apparent temperature t ...[more]
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Project description:ObjectiveThis study aimed to describe the impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic on emergency department (ED) admissions for urgent diagnoses.MethodsFrom January 1, 2019, until December 31, 2020, patients older than 18 years who attended the ED at University Hospital of Leuven (UZ Leuven, Belgium) were included. Urgent diagnoses selected in the First Hour Quintet were collected. The periods of the pandemic waves in 2020 were analyzed and compared with the same time period in 2019.ResultsDuring the first wave of the pandemic, 16 075 patients attended the ED compared with 16 893 patients during the comparison period in 2019. The proportion of patients having one of the diagnoses of the First Hour Quintet was similar between the periods (4.4% vs 4.5%). During the second wave, 14 739 patients attended the ED compared with 18 704 patients during the same period in 2019; 5.6% of patients had a diagnosis of the First Hour Quintet compared with 4.3% of patients in the comparison period.ConclusionThis study showed a decrease in the number of patients attending the ED during the COVID-19 pandemic. Further studies are needed to determine for which conditions patients visited the ED less.
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| S-EPMC8424016 | biostudies-literature
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Project description:BackgroundIn July 2013, an extended heat episode with extreme high temperature covered Pudong New Area, the largest district in Shanghai. The current study estimates the impacts of temperature and heat waves on emergency department visits (EDV) and emergency ambulance dispatches (EAD) using time-series approaches in Pudong, from 2011 to 2013.MethodsAn over-dispersed Poisson generalized additive model was used to examine the association between temperature and EDV and EAD. Heat wave effects with different heat wave definitions considering both the intensity and durations were also estimated.ResultsImmediate effects of temperature on EDV and EAD were detected, after controlling for trends of time and day of week. The exposure-response relationships showed J-shaped curves with higher threshold temperature of EDV than that of EAD visually. When estimating risk changes on heat days compared with non-heat days using different percentiles of daily mean temperature in definition, EAD showed significant increases while non-significant or even negative associations were found for EDV. Heat wave with intensity above the 90th percentile had 2.62% (95% CI: 1.78%, 3.46%) and 0.95% (95% CI: 0.22%, 1.69%) increases in EDV for a duration of at least 2 days and 3 days respectively. The relative increase of EAD were 4.85% (95% CI: 1.42%, 8.39%) and 3.94% (95% CI: 0.88%, 7.10%).ConclusionsVaried effects of temperature and heat waves on emergency department visits and emergency ambulance dispatches were investigated. This wider view of the health effect of temperature indicated that interventions for both public health education and health services management should be considered in the study region.
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Project description:BackgroundFor a number of fiscal and practical reasons, data on heroin use have been of poor quality, which has hampered the ability to halt the growing epidemic. Internet search data, such as those made available by Google Trends, have been used as a low-cost, real-time data source for monitoring and predicting a variety of public health outcomes. We aimed to determine whether data on opioid-related internet searches might predict future heroin-related admissions to emergency departments (ED).MethodsAcross nine metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) in the United States, we obtained data on Google searches for prescription and non-prescription opioids, as well as Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) data on heroin-related ED visits from 2004 to 2011. A linear mixed model assessed the relationship between opioid-related Internet searches and following year heroin-related visits, controlling for MSA GINI index and total number of ED visits.ResultsThe best-fitting model explained 72% of the variance in heroin-related ED visits. The final model included the search keywords "Avinza," "Brown Sugar," "China White," "Codeine," "Kadian," "Methadone," and "Oxymorphone." We found regional differences in where and how people searched for opioid-related information.ConclusionsInternet search-based modeling should be explored as a new source of insights for predicting heroin-related admissions. In geographic regions where no current heroin-related data exist, Internet search modeling might be a particularly valuable and inexpensive tool for estimating changing heroin use trends. We discuss the immediate implications for using this approach to assist in managing opioid-related morbidity and mortality in the United States.
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