In the elderly, outdoor heat is linked with a higher risk of emergency hospitalization for respiratory disorders, finds study.

The findings were published online ahead of print publication in the American Thoracic Society's American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
The study included 213 urban counties across the United States and more than 30 percent of the U.S. population aged 65 or older. Data on Medicare emergency respiratory hospitalizations were obtained for the period 1999-2008, along with measurements of weather and air pollution.
On average, respiratory hospitalizations increased 4.3 percent for each 10°F increase in daily mean summer temperature. This association, which was not changed by adjustments for air pollution, age, gender or seasonal trends in hospitalization rates and temperature, was strongest on the day of exposure to heat and remained elevated the day following exposure.
The increased risk for heat-related hospitalization was similar for COPD (4.7 percent) and respiratory tract infections (4.1 percent), and tended to be higher in counties where summers are typically mild.
Each 10°F increase in daily temperature translates to approximately 30 excess respiratory hospitalizations per day among the elderly in the 213 counties studied, with larger increases in temperature expected to result in more excess hospitalizations.
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Source-Newswise