Heat-related illness: a window into recent trends
- Collection:
- Health Policy and Services Research
- Series Title(s):
- Brief (FAIR Health, Inc.)
- Contributor(s):
- FAIR Health, Inc., issuing body.
- Publication:
- New York, NY : FAIR Health, Inc., December 13, 2022
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- Heat Stress Disorders -- epidemiology Age Factors Global Warming Sex Factors United States
- Genre(s):
- Technical Report
- Abstract:
- Average summer temperatures in the United States have been rising. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has identified projected increases in extreme summer heat as one source of adverse health impacts from climate change. However, systematic, national data on trends in heat-related illnesses in the United States have been lacking. With this report, FAIR Health seeks to help address this research gap. Drawing on its repository of more than 39 billion private healthcare claim records—the nation’s largest such repository--FAIR Health analyzed recent trends and patterns in heat-related illnesses in the United States. Three types of heat-related illness--in order of increasing severity, heat stress, heat exhaustion and heatstroke--were examined in the period from May through September for the years 2016-2021. Changes in percent of patients diagnosed, as well as their age and gender, were studied for each type of illness. Among the key findings: (1) The percentage of patients who were diagnosed with heat stress, heat exhaustion or heatstroke was higher in each month in 2021 than in the corresponding month of 2016. (2) Of the three heat-related illnesses studied, heat exhaustion had the greatest increase from one month--i.e., June--of 2016 to the corresponding month of 2021. In that month, the percentage of patients diagnosed with heat exhaustion rose 52.5 percent, from 0.83 percent of patients receiving medical services in 2016 to 1.26 percent in 2021. By comparison, the greatest increase for heatstroke was 40.1 percent from September 2016 to September 2021. The greatest increase for heat stress was 37.8 percent from May 2016 to May 2021. (2) The percentage of patients with heat stress, heat exhaustion or heatstroke diagnoses increased with age, with the greatest percentage found in the age group 65 years and older. Of patients who received medical services nationally in the 65-and-older population, 2.61 percent had a diagnosis of heat exhaustion, 1.93 percent had a diagnosis of heat stress and 0.70 percent had a diagnosis of heatstroke. (3) More males than females were diagnosed with the three heat-related illnesses studied. Though the distribution was close for heat stress (males 52 percent, females 48 percent), there was greater gender disparity for heat exhaustion and heatstroke. For each of these diagnoses, males constituted 64 percent and females constituted 36 percent. (3) Age was a factor in whether males or females were more likely to be diagnosed with heat stress. In individuals 36 years and older, males were more likely than females to be diagnosed; in individuals 35 years and younger, females were more likely than males to be diagnosed with heat stress. For heat exhaustion and heatstroke, males were more likely than females to be diagnosed in every age group. (4) For all three heat-related illnesses studied, the largest disparity between males and females in percentage of diagnoses was in the age group 55 to 64.
- Copyright:
- Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY-NC-ND license. (More information)
- Extent:
- 1 online resource (1 PDF file (18 pages))
- Illustrations:
- Illustrations
- NLM Unique ID:
- 9918591679906676 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918591679906676