Logo image
Back
High ambient temperatures associations with children and young adult injury emergency department visits in NYC
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

High ambient temperatures associations with children and young adult injury emergency department visits in NYC

Blean Girma, Bian Liu, Leah H Schinasi, Jane E Clougherty and Perry E Sheffield
Environmental Research: Health
28 Jun 2023
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/2752-5309/ace27b
url
https://doi.org/10.1088/2752-5309/ace27bView
Published, Version of Record (VoR) Open

Abstract

Abstract Background Injury is a significant health burden for children and young adult and may be an increasing concern in a warming climate. Research reveals many impacts to children’s health associated with hot weather and heatwave events, including a growing literature on the association between high ambient temperature and injury, which may vary by intent such as injury resulting from violence. However, little is known about how this association varies across different types of injury and subgroups of young people. We examined relationships between warm season ambient temperature and intentional and unintentional injury among children and young adults in New York City (NYC). Methods Within a case-crossover design, our study observed injury-related ED visits from an administrative dataset. Injuries were categorized as unintentional or intentional injuries during the warm season (May through September) in NYC from 2005 to 2011 among patients (0, 1-4, 5-9, 10-14, 15-19, 20-25 years old (y.o.)). Conditional logistic regression models with distributed lag non-linear functions were used to model the cumulative odds ratio (OR) injury-related ED visit over 0-5 lag days. Analyses were stratified by age group and sex to understand how associations vary across young people of different age and sex. Results There were a total of 572,535 injury-related ED visits. The largest effect of elevated temperature (daily minimum 77°F vs 48°F) was for unintentional injury among 5-9 y.o. (OR 1.32, 95% CI 1.23, 1.42) and for intentional injury among 20-25 y.o. (OR 1.54, 95% CI 1.28, 1.85). Further stratified analyses revealed that the highest risk of unintentional injury was among 5-9 y.o. males and 20-25y.o. males for intentional injury. Conclusion We demonstrate an elevated odds of approximately 30% of an ED visit for injury (unintentional and intentional across most age groups) between the coolest days of the warm season to some of the warmest.

Metrics

12 Record Views

Details

Logo image