Short-term effect of apparent temperature on daily emergency visits for mental and behavioral disorders in Beijing, China: A time-series study

Abstract

Background The relationship between temperature and mental disorders is still unclear. This study aims to assess the short-term effect of apparent temperature (AT) on daily emergency visits of mental and behavioral disorders (MDs) in Beijing, China. Methods Daily counts of emergency visits related to MDs in Beijing from 2016 to 2018 were obtained. A quasi-Poisson generalized additive model combined with a distributed lag non-linear model (DLNM) was applied to analyze the lag-exposure-response relationship between AT and emergency admissions related to MDs. Sunshine duration, precipitation, PM 2.5 , SO 2 , O 3 , time trend, day of week and holiday were adjusted in the model. Results Total daily emergency visits for MDs during the study period were 16,606. With the reference of −2.4 °C (temperature with the minimum emergency visit risk), the single day effects of low AT (−8.6 °C, 10th percentile) and high AT (9.2 °C, 90th percentile) on MDs emergency visits reached a relative risk peak of 1.043 (95%CI: 1.017–1.069) on lag day 4 and 1.105 (95%CI: 1.006–1.215) on lag day 1, respectively. The greatest cumulative effect of high AT emerged on lag 0–5 days and reached a relative risk of 1.435 (95%CI: 1.048–1.965), while no significant cumulative effect of low AT was observed. There was a significant effect of high AT on emergency visits of MDs due to psychoactive substance use and male patients. Conclusions Both low and high AT are demonstrated to be the significant risk factors of MDs, which highlights the need of strengthening the health interventions, patient medical services and early warning for patients.

Meteorological Variables and Suicidal Behavior: Air Pollution and Apparent Temperature Are Associated With High-Lethality Suicide Attempts and Male Gender

“…These results are obtained by using AT instead of the individual parameters WS, T, HP, and WP to better summarize the results. Furthermore, AT has been proven to characterize the physiological experience better than just the temperature or the other parameters alone [Niu et al ( 27 )]. In our case, SR, AT, and PM 2.5 are very closely related to the HLSA and male subjects while LLSA and females are correlated to NO 2 concentration and precipitation.…”

“…Therefore, other environmental variables such as increased ambient temperature or air pollution could be implicated in this complex phenomenon. A potential role of ambient or apparent temperature on suicidal behaviors has been studied with controversial results (15,16,(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28). Several data, however, showed that a 26.6-60% of variation in suicidal behaviors could be explained by temperature fluctuations (29-31) but not with sunlight exposure, especially in completed suicide (16).…”

Short-Term Association of Air Pollutant Levels and Hospital Admissions for Stroke and Effect Modification by Apparent Temperature: Evidence From Shanghai, China

“…The AT was calculated by daily mean temperature, relative humidity, and barometric pressure using the following equations ( 18 , 22 , 23 ):…”

Low apparent temperature increases the number of epilepsy-related clinic visits in a humid subtropical region: a time-series study

“…According to the above meteorological data, which include ambient temperature, wind velocity and relative humidity, AT was calculated. The specific formulas used are as follows [18,19]: where T a represents the ambient mean temperature (°C); ɑ is vapour pressure (hPa), calculated using equation (2); WV is wind velocity (m s −1 ), and RH is relative humidity (%).…”