| Title |
Extreme climatic conditions and health service utilisation across rural and metropolitan New South Wales
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
International Journal of Biometeorology, March 2017
|
| DOI | 10.1007/s00484-017-1313-5 |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
Edward Jegasothy, Rhydwyn McGuire, John Nairn, Robert Fawcett, Benjamin Scalley |
| Abstract |
Periods of successive extreme heat and cold temperature have major effects on human health and increase rates of health service utilisation. The severity of these events varies between geographic locations and populations. This study aimed to estimate the effects of heat waves and cold waves on health service utilisation across urban, regional and remote areas in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, during the 10-year study period 2005-2015. We divided the state into three regions and used 24 over-dispersed or zero-inflated Poisson time-series regression models to estimate the effect of heat waves and cold waves, of three levels of severity, on the rates of ambulance call-outs, emergency department (ED) presentations and mortality. We defined heat waves and cold waves using excess heat factor (EHF) and excess cold factor (ECF) metrics, respectively. Heat waves generally resulted in increased rates of ambulance call-outs, ED presentations and mortality across the three regions and the entire state. For all of NSW, very intense heat waves resulted in an increase of 10.8% (95% confidence interval (CI) 4.5, 17.4%) in mortality, 3.4% (95% CI 0.8, 7.8%) in ED presentations and 10.9% (95% CI 7.7, 14.2%) in ambulance call-outs. Cold waves were shown to have significant effects on ED presentations (9.3% increase for intense events, 95% CI 8.0-10.6%) and mortality (8.8% increase for intense events, 95% CI 2.1-15.9%) in outer regional and remote areas. There was little evidence for an effect from cold waves on health service utilisation in major cities and inner regional areas. Heat waves have a large impact on health service utilisation in NSW in both urban and rural settings. Cold waves also have significant effects in outer regional and remote areas. EHF is a good predictor of health service utilisation for heat waves, although service needs may differ between urban and rural areas. |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 58 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | 1 | 2% |
| Unknown | 57 | 98% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Researcher | 14 | 24% |
| Student > Ph. D. Student | 8 | 14% |
| Student > Master | 7 | 12% |
| Student > Bachelor | 4 | 7% |
| Student > Postgraduate | 3 | 5% |
| Other | 6 | 10% |
| Unknown | 16 | 28% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Environmental Science | 13 | 22% |
| Medicine and Dentistry | 9 | 16% |
| Earth and Planetary Sciences | 5 | 9% |
| Social Sciences | 3 | 5% |
| Engineering | 2 | 3% |
| Other | 8 | 14% |
| Unknown | 18 | 31% |
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 15. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 15 August 2018.
All research outputs
#2,033,939
of 23,099,576 outputs
Outputs from International Journal of Biometeorology
#166
of 1,302 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#41,156
of 309,967 outputs
Outputs of similar age from International Journal of Biometeorology
#4
of 23 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 23,099,576 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 91st percentile: it's in the top 10% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 1,302 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 11.2. This one has done well, scoring higher than 86% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 309,967 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 86% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 23 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 82% of its contemporaries.