Effects of Extreme Temperatures on Years of Life Lost for Cardiovascular Deaths: A Time Series Study in Brisbane, Australia

Abstract

Background— Extreme temperatures are associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD) deaths. Previous studies have investigated the relative CVD mortality risk of temperature, but this risk is heavily influenced by deaths in frail elderly people. To better estimate the burden of extreme temperatures, we estimated their effects on years of life lost due to CVD. Methods and Results— The data were daily observations on weather and CVD mortality for Brisbane, Australia, between 1996 and 2004. We estimated the association between daily mean temperature and years of life lost due to CVD, after adjusting for trend, season, day of the week, and humidity. To examine the nonlinear and delayed effects of temperature, a distributed lag nonlinear model was used. The model’s residuals were examined to investigate whether there were any added effects due to cold spells and heat waves. The exposure–response curve between temperature and years of life lost was U-shaped, with the lowest years of life lost at 24°C. The curve had a sharper rise at extremes of heat than of cold. The effect of cold peaked 2 days after exposure, whereas the greatest effect of heat occurred on the day of exposure. There were significantly added effects of heat waves on years of life lost. Conclusions— Increased years of life lost due to CVD are associated with both cold and hot temperatures. Research on specific interventions is needed to reduce temperature-related years of life lost from CVD deaths.

The effects of high temperature on cardiovascular admissions in the most populous tropical city in Vietnam

“…In this study, we define heatwave as a sustained period of !2 consecutive days when the temperature ! the 99th percentile of daily mean temperatures (Huang et al, 2012a;Xu et al, 2013;Bobb et al, 2014). The delayed effects of 7 days were also examined using DLNM model.…”

“…Even though the best known risk factors for the cause of CVD are related to lifestyle habits such as smoking, alcohol consumption, insufficient physical activity, high blood pressure and cholesterol, and obesity (WHO, 2007), environmental factors such as temperature and air pollution also make a significant contribution to CVD onsets (Gerber et al, 2002). Nevertheless, the evidence on the effects of high temperature to the CVD admissions is less consistent, even though the effect on mortality has been consistently demonstrated in urban locations worldwide (Huang et al, 2012b;Baccini et al, 2008;Basu, 2009;Mcmichael et al, 2008;Yang et al, 2015;Gasparrini et al, 2015;Son et al, 2014;Lubczynska et al, 2015;Guo et al, 2014). For instance, studies have shown that high temperatures are associated with increased hospital visits and admissions for cardio-respiratory diseases both during heatwaves and at other times of the summer in several US cities (Konken et al, 2003;Lin et al, 2009;Shwartz et al, 2004).…”

Heat and cardiovascular diseases: A review of epidemiological surveys

“…людей молодого возраста в отличие от волн холода, во время ко-торых наибольшему риску подвержены пожилые люди [25].…”

Impact of a cold wave on disease course, hemodynamics, carbohydrate metabolism, and blood rheological properties in cardiac patents

“…Полученные данные свидетельствуют, что снижение температуры атмосферного воздуха на 1 °С ниже порого-вого уровня ассоциируется с увеличением общего числа смертей на 1,35%, смертности от ССЗ на 1,72%, от респи-раторных заболеваний на 3,3% и от сосудисто-мозговых болезней на 1,25%. Увеличение зимней смертности от ССЗ описано во многих европейских странах [1][2][3][4][5], включая Россию [1,6], США [7], Китай [8], Японию [9], Австралию [10] и Новую Зеландию [11]. Однако причина этого явления неизвестна.…”