The impact of daily temperature on renal disease incidence: an ecological study

Abstract

BackgroundExtremely high temperatures over many consecutive days have been linked to an increase in renal disease in several cities. This is becoming increasingly relevant with heatwaves becoming longer, more intense, and more frequent with climate change. This study aimed to extend the known relationship between daily temperature and kidney disease to include the incidence of eight temperature-prone specific renal disease categories – total renal disease, urolithiasis, renal failure, acute kidney injury (AKI), chronic kidney disease (CKD), urinary tract infections (UTIs), lower urinary tract infections (LUTIs) and pyelonephritis.MethodsDaily data was acquired for maximum, minimum and average temperature over the period of 1 July 2003 to 31 March 2014 during the warm season (October to March) in Adelaide, South Australia. Data for daily admissions to all metropolitan hospitals for renal disease, including 83,519 emergency department admissions and 42,957 inpatient admissions, was also obtained. Renal outcomes were analyzed using time-stratified negative binomial regression models, with the results aggregated by day. Incidence rate ratios (IRR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated for associations between the number of admissions and daily temperature.ResultsIncreases in daily temperature per 1 °C were associated with an increased incidence for all renal disease categories except for pyelonephritis. Minimum temperature was associated with the greatest increase in renal disease followed by average temperature and then maximum temperature. A 1°C increase in daily minimum temperature was associated with an increase in daily emergency department admissions for AKI (IRR 1.037, 95% CI: 1.026–1.048), renal failure (IRR 1.030, 95% CI: 1.022–1.039), CKD (IRR 1.017, 95% CI: 1.001–1.033) urolithiasis (IRR 1.015, 95% CI: 1.010–1.020), total renal disease (IRR 1.009, 95% CI: 1.006–1.011), UTIs (IRR 1.004, 95% CI: 1.000–1.007) and LUTIs (IRR 1.003, 95% CI: 1.000–1.006).ConclusionsAn increased frequency of renal disease, including urolithiasis, acute kidney injury and urinary tract infections, is predicted with increasing temperatures from climate change. These results have clinical and public health implications for the management of renal diseases and demand tailored health services. Future research is warranted to analyze individual renal diseases with more comprehensive information regarding renal risk factors, and studies examining mortality for specific renal diseases.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12940-017-0331-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Kidney Injury from Recurrent Heat Stress and Rhabdomyolysis: Protective Role of Allopurinol and Sodium Bicarbonate

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Climate change causes changes in biochemical markers of renal disease

“…Signals in Ghana indicates that temperatures in all the ecological zones are intensifying whilst patterns and levels of rainfall generally are plummeting and increasingly becoming erratic (Minia, 2004). A study conducted in Adelaide, a city with temperate climate to investigate the association between temperature and admissions for speci c renal diseases thus urolithiasis, UTIs and CKD saw that increases in daily temperature per 1 °C were associated with an increased incidence for all renal disease categories considered for the study except for pyelonephritis (Borg et al, 2017). Similar studies documented an increased admissions for renal disease and acute renal failure during the periods of heat waves compared with non-heat wave periods (Hansen et al, 2008).…”

The role of selected environmental factors and the type of work performed on the development of urolithiasis – a review paper

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