Extreme Weather Conditions and Cardiovascular Hospitalizations in Southern Brazil

Iago Turba Costa, Cassio Arthur Wollmann, João Paulo Assis Gobo, Priscilla Venâncio Ikefuti, Salman Shooshtarian and Andreas Matzarakis
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Iago Turba Costa: Department of Geoscience, Federal University of Santa Maria, Santa Maria 97105-900, Brazil
Cassio Arthur Wollmann: Department of Geoscience, Federal University of Santa Maria, Santa Maria 97105-900, Brazil
João Paulo Assis Gobo: Department of Geography, Federal University of Rondônia, Porto Velho 76801-059, Brazil
Priscilla Venâncio Ikefuti: Epidemiological Surveillance Center, State Department of Health (CVE/SES), São Paulo 01246-000, Brazil
Salman Shooshtarian: School of Property, Construction and Project Management, RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC 3001, Australia
Andreas Matzarakis: Research Centre Human Biometeorology, Deutscher Wetterdienst, 79104 Freiburg, Germany

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 21, 1-17

Abstract: This research concerns the identification of a pattern between the occurrence of extreme weather conditions, such as cold waves and heat waves, and hospitalization for cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), in the University Hospital of Santa Maria (HUSM) in southern Brazil between 2012 and 2017. The research employed the field experiment method to measure the biometeorological parameters associated with hospital admissions in different seasons, such as during extreme weather conditions such as a cold wave (CW) or a heat wave (HW), using five thermal comfort indices: physiologically equivalent temperature (PET), new standard effective temperature (SET), predicted mean vote (PMV), effective temperatures (ET), and effective temperature with wind (ETW). The hospitalizations were recorded as 0.775 and 0.726 admissions per day for the winter and entire study periods, respectively. The records for extreme events showed higher admission rates than those on average days. The results also suggest that emergency hospitalizations for heart diseases during extreme weather events occurred predominantly on days with thermal discomfort. Furthermore, there was a particularly high risk of hospitalization for up to seven days after the end of the CW. Further analyses showed that cardiovascular hospitalizations were higher in winter than in summer, suggesting that CWs are more life threatening in wintertime.

Keywords: hospitalization tax; cardiovascular diseases; air temperature; cold waves; heat waves; correlation; human thermal comfort; southern Brazil (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:21:p:12194-:d:672500

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