Work

Impact of heat on emergency department visits and hospital admissions in the Paris region

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: BACKGROUND: To adapt the health system to climate change, it is important to understand how heat affects healthcare use. This study examines the impact of heat on emergency department (ED) visits and hospital admissions (HA) by age (15-64, 65 and over), sex, type of urban environment and social deprivation, in the Paris region (France). METHOD: Daily ED visits and HA were collected for the 527 postal codes and 1,287 municipalities, for cardiovascular, respiratory, renal, heat-related causes, by age and sex, from 2010 to 2019. Daily mean temperatures were estimated for each postal code and municipality using 1.25 km gridded data. Time-series analyses using non-linear distributed lag models were used. RESULTS: Heat was associated with an increase in ED visits and HA for heat-related causes, respiratory causes and renal causes in all areas, age groups and sex. Around 27,000 ED visits and 4,800 HA were attributable to heat between 2010 and 2019 in the Paris region, including around 15,000 ED visits for malaise, and 3,100 HA for respiratory causes. DISCUSSION: The results highlight that the effects of heat are numerous, and are not uniform depending on the causes and health indicators studied. They call for a stronger action to prevent the impacts of heat on morbidity.

Source: Health & Place

DOI: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2025.103582