Extreme heat and paediatric emergency department visits in Southwestern Ontario.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

The risk of adverse health events is expected to increase with hotter temperatures, particularly among the most vulnerable groups such as elderly persons and children. The objective of this study was to assess the association between extreme heat and daily emergency department visits among children (0 to 17 years) in Southwestern Ontario.

Methods

We examined the average maximum temperature, relative humidity, and daily paediatric emergency department visits in June through August of 2002 to 2019. We reviewed emergency department visits from two academic hospitals. Daily meteorological data from the local weather station were obtained from Environment and Climate Change Canada.

Results

Extreme heat, defined as the 99th percentile of the maximum temperature di

SUBMITTER: Wilk P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8318534 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature