As Days Warm, Emergency Visits, Deaths Could Rise

A new study that projects an increase in deaths and emergency visits in Rhode Island as climate change pushes summertime temperatures higher by the end of the century, has also revealed a finding of more immediate public health concern:  Even in the present day, when temperatures rise above 75 degrees there is a noticeable increase in medical distress among state residents of all ages.

The study by researchers at Brown University and the Rhode Island Department of Health is based on a detailed statistical analysis of emergency department visits, deaths, weather data, and possibly confounding factors (such as ozone) from recent years.  The researchers could tell from the records whether emergency doctors thought a patient's condition was related to heat or dehydration.

"Our primary finding is that as temperatures increase, the number of emergency room visits and deaths increase," said Samantha Kingsley, a Brown University public health graduate student and lead author of the study in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.  "But people were going to the hospital for heat-related reasons at temperatures below what we would typically consider extreme."

Read more at As Days Warm, Emergency Visits, Deaths Could Rise