Environmental Temperature Extremes: Feasibility Study of Effect on
Pediatric Health
Abstract
Despite consensus that projected climate changes may result in
significant threats to human health, and considerable research on
extreme temperature-health risks in adults, there is a paucity of
information on pediatric health impacts from extreme temperature
conditions. Weather data from Chicago’s O’Hare Airport measured at
multiple times/hour were collected for January 1, 2009 to August 1,
2018. Generalized Additive Models (GAMs) were used to investigate the
relationships between air temperature and electronic health record data
for emergency department (ED) and pediatric intensive care unit (PICU)
admissions at a quaternary-pediatric medical center, for the same
period. Daily environmental temperatures increased over time as
expected, while unexpectedly ED and PICU admissions decreased. Even when
temporal trends in each admission-high risk condition variable were
accounted for, a consistent negative relationship was found with 0.406
fewer total (0.038 fewer high risk) ED encounters and 0.012 fewer total
(0.010 fewer high risk) PICU admissions per 1°F increase in daily
environmental temperature using both regression and GAMs. Our results
for the ED and PICU admissions are not consistent with previously
reported studies. Many of the previous studies were from under-resourced
countries in which factors not considered in this study (e.g., food
insecurity, other diseases, air quality, natural disasters) existed.
These differences point to the need for further clarification of the
relationship between environmental temperature and child health.