Fatal Heart Risks: The Deadly Combination of Heat Waves and Air Pollution

2023-08-01 03:04:32

Recently, a study has found that the combination of heat waves and air pollution is fatal to the heart while the world is suffering from abnormally high temperatures. The risk of heart attack doubled, with women and the elderly particularly vulnerable.

The results of a study on the effects of heat waves and air pollution on myocardial infarction mortality, conducted by Professor Ruijun Xu, Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Zhongshan University, China, were published in the international journal Circulation on the 24th (doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.122.063504). ).

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Temperature extremes, including heat and cold, are associated with myocardial infarction (MI) incidence, but their effect on MI mortality has not been clearly established.

Particulate matter (PM 2.5) is also known to have an adverse effect on cardiovascular mortality, but whether and how extreme temperature changes and PM 2.5 interact on MI mortality is still unknown.

To confirm this, the researchers conducted a time-stratified case crossover study of 202,678 MI deaths in Jiangsu Province, China from 2015 to 2020 to investigate the association between extreme temperature changes and PM 2.5 incidence and MI mortality, and correlated them. The action effect was evaluated.

Daily temperature and PM 2.5 exposure were evaluated by extracting values ​​from a grid data set validated at each subject’s residential address, and exposure-response analysis was performed by applying a conditional logistic regression model, and the ratio due to crossover and the occurrence due to synergy index We estimated the odds ratio.

As a result of the analysis, the odds ratio of MI mortality related to heat waves and cold waves ranged from 1.18 to 1.74 and 1.04 to 1.12, respectively, and the increase in death risk was particularly large in heat waves.

The risk of fatal MI was 18% higher during a 2-day heat wave with a heat index above the 90th percentile (28.1-36.6°C) and 74% higher during a 4-day heat wave with a heat index above the 97.5th percentile (34.9-43°C).

Exposure to PM 2.5 was also significantly associated with increased mortality from MI, with heatwaves and particulate matter combined generally having higher mortality rates in heatwaves with greater intensity and longer duration.

The risk of fatal MI was twice as high during a 4-day heat wave with PM 2.5 above 37.5 µg/m³, but during a cold wave, elevated PM 2.5 levels did not increase the risk of MI by a similar level.

The risk of death was higher for women than for men during the heat wave and higher for adults over 80 years of age than for younger adults.

“This analysis provides consistent evidence that exposure to extreme heat and PM 2.5 is significantly associated with increased mortality from MI in women and older adults, but not to cold waves,” said the researchers. This suggests that it may be beneficial in preventing premature death due to

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