Grantee Research Project Results
2006 Progress Report: Heat-related Hospital Admissions Among the Elderly: Community, Socio-economic and Medical Determinants of Vulnerability and Economic Impacts
EPA Grant Number: R832752Title: Heat-related Hospital Admissions Among the Elderly: Community, Socio-economic and Medical Determinants of Vulnerability and Economic Impacts
Investigators: O'Neill, Marie , Diez Roux, Ana V. , Zanobetti, Antonella , Schrag, Daniel , Brown, Daniel , Levy, Helen , Schwartz, Joel , Williams, Roger
Current Investigators: O'Neill, Marie , Diez Roux, Ana V. , Zanobetti, Antonella , Schrag, Daniel , Brown, Daniel , Levy, Helen , Schwartz, Joel , Stults, Melissa , Williams, Roger
Institution: University of Michigan , ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability/Cities for Climate Protection Campaign , Harvard University
Current Institution: Harvard University , ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability/Cities for Climate Protection Campaign , University of Michigan
EPA Project Officer: Chung, Serena
Project Period: January 1, 2006 through December 1, 2009 (Extended to December 31, 2010)
Project Period Covered by this Report: January 1, 2006 through December 1, 2007
Project Amount: $576,091
RFA: The Impact of Climate Change & Variability on Human Health (2005) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Climate Change
Objective:
- a. Determine whether excess hospital admissions occur among elderly people during hot weather in 100 U.S. cities, from cardiovascular, respiratory, diabetes and heat-related causes
- Quantify the economic impact of these admissions under different climate change scenarios and adaptive/mitigative strategies, addressing equity concerns
- Disseminate results to city officials in order to foster and inform preventive actions and policies
b. Assess whether vulnerability to heat-associated hospital admission differs, according to:
- co-morbid conditions (diabetes; cardiovascular, respiratory, renal disease; overall frailty)
- individual characteristics (race, gender, age, use of public vs. private hospital)
- city-wide characteristics (percent poverty, percent with college education, percent of non-white population, air conditioning (AC) prevalence, percent green space, housing characteristics, air pollution concentrations, weather variability, city preventive programs)
Progress Summary:
We have hired research assistant and compiled datasets of community level variables, with the exception of housing characteristics and city preventive programs, and partially completed the datasets of hospital admissions and environmental variables. Preliminary analyses have been conducted with a subset of the hospital and environmental data and presentations on the planned work made at two conferences.
Future Activities:
We will complete dataset preparation and analyses and other remaining activities outlined in the grant proposal.
References:
O'Neill MS, Zanobetti A, Schwartz J, Levy H, Diez-Roux AV, Williams R, Brown DG. Heat and hospital admissions among U.S. elderly. Epidemiology 2006;17(6):S 127-8.
O'Neill MS, Zanobetti A, Wellenius GA, Schwartz J. Heat and hospital admissions in 43 U.S. cities. Abstract submitted to International Society for Environmental Epidemiology 2007.
O'Neill MS, Zanobetti A, Schwartz J, Levy H, Diez-Roux AV, Wyman M, Brown DG. Climate change, heat and health in U.S. cities: Research and action to protect the vulnerable. Abstract submitted to American Public Health Association meeting 2007.
Journal Articles:
No journal articles submitted with this report: View all 38 publications for this projectSupplemental Keywords:
global climate, health effects, sensitive populations, susceptibility,, RFA, Health, Scientific Discipline, Air, ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, Health Risk Assessment, climate change, Air Pollution Effects, Risk Assessments, Environmental Monitoring, Ecological Risk Assessment, Atmosphere, Risk Assessment, air quality modeling, ecosystem models, elderly adults, climatic influence, heat related health effects, modeling, hormone degradation, climate models, demographics, human exposure, regional climate model, heart attacks, cardiotoxicity, ambient air pollution, cardiovascular disease, Global Climate Change, human health risk, biochemical researchProgress and Final Reports:
Original AbstractThe perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.