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High Ambient Temperature and Infant Mortality in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: A Case-Crossover Study
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

High Ambient Temperature and Infant Mortality in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: A Case-Crossover Study

Leah H Schinasi, Joan Rosen Bloch, Steven Melly, Yuzhe Zhao, Kari Moore and Anneclaire J De Roos
American journal of public health (1971), v 110(2), pp 189-195
Feb 2020
PMID: 31855483
url
https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.2019.305442View
Published, Version of Record (VoR)Open Access (License Unspecified) Open

Abstract

Cross-Over Studies Extreme Heat - adverse effects Female Humans Infant Infant Mortality - ethnology Infant Mortality - trends Infant, Newborn Male Philadelphia Poverty Seasons Urban Population
To quantify the association between heat and infant mortality and identify factors that influence infant vulnerability to heat. We conducted a time-stratified case-crossover analysis of associations between ambient temperature and infant mortality in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, during the warm months of 2000 through 2015. We used conditional logistic regression models to estimate associations of infant mortality with daily temperatures on the day of death (lag 0) and for averaging periods of 0 to 1 to 0 to 3 days before the day of death. We explored modification of associations by individual and census tract-level characteristics and by amounts of green space. Risk of infant mortality increased by 22.4% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 5.0%, 42.6%) for every 1°C increase in minimum daily temperature over 23.9°C on the day of death. We observed limited evidence of effect modification across strata of the covariates. Our results contribute to a growing body of evidence that infants are a subpopulation that is particularly vulnerable to climate change effects. Further research using large data sets is critically needed to elucidate modifiable factors that may protect infants against heat vulnerability.

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UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#14 Life Below Water
#13 Climate Action
#3 Good Health and Well-Being

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Web of Science research areas
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
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