Temperature has a great influence on human activity. For example, different seasons have different food and different clothes to wear. There are trivial things like this, but what we care about the most is the temperature changes that are unbearable. Summer heatwaves and winter colds are typical examples. By the middle of June, the Korean Peninsula is already getting hot. The temperature from early to mid-June was at an all-time high, and the Korea Meteorological Administration predicts that this summer will be a hot summer with many heat waves.
When the heat wave comes to mind, it is a heat-related disease, but patients with heat-related diseases are on the rise due to continuous temperature rise. In particular, in 2018, when the heat wave hit a peak, only 4526 people suffered from thermal illness and 48 people died. However, research has shown that in addition to thermal diseases, if the temperature rises abnormally, the death rate from injuries such as traffic accidents, water play, and assault increases. The researchers used 38 years of temperature and mortality data for the United States from 1980 to 2017. The Bayesian model was used to analyze the correlation between abnormal temperature and death from injury. Previous studies mainly focused on parasites, infectious diseases, cardiopulmonary diseases, and chronic diseases caused by climate change. The study shows how much more dangerous the injuries we may be facing are at higher temperatures, and is also meaningful in analyzing gender and age. Of course, studies have not ruled out phenomena such as air pollution caused by climate change, and the cause of certain deaths cannot be determined as'injury'. However, no studies have shown that air pollution has led to the death of the injured.
● Additional mortality from injury… 80% of males
From 1980 to 2017, the number of deaths from injuries in the United States was 4 million men and 1.8 million women. The figures accounted for 9.3% and 4.2% of all deaths in the United States, respectively. (See figure.) The researchers used this data to analyze the results of a temperature rise of 1.5°C above the average. According to the analysis, the total number of deaths from injuries increased by 1,601. If the temperature rises by 2°C, 2,135 more people will die from the injury.
(Number of deaths from injury in the United States from 1980 to 2017, by type)
Another fact was found in the study, and the mortality rate was significantly different depending on the gender and type of injury. By injury type, traffic accidents increased the most, accounting for 739 of the total deaths, and proportionately, the highest was the number of drowning deaths during water dip, up 13.7%. The death rate from assault increased at the lowest rate. In the case of traffic accidents, alcohol consumption increased as the temperature rose, leading to drunk driving, leading to an increase in mortality. In addition, the researchers noted that the increase in the mortality rate was also attributed to the increase in the number of outdoor active people in combination with the increase in summer traffic.
According to the gender analysis, 86% of the additional deaths were male and the remaining 16% were female. The researchers also analyzed why more men were killed by type. For example, it was analyzed that the male and female behavioral patterns differed from the increase in mortality due to drowning. More than half of the drowning deaths during the summer were found to be during outdoor activities. By comparison, women had less than one-quarter of outdoor activity at half the rate for men. The researchers predict that this behavior will become more pronounced as temperatures rise.
● The mortality rate of the elderly decreased, and the mortality rate of young and middle-aged people increased
, so there were more men among all the additional deaths. In the case of men, 92% of the additional deaths were between 15 and 64 years old. On the other hand, since the age of 85, the death rate from injury has decreased. The decrease in the mortality rate for the elderly was analyzed because the more warm the weather, the less likely it would be to be injured due to slipping on ice. (See picture)
(When the temperature rises by 1.5°C above the average, the number of deaths by injury by gender and age)
In the case of drowning mortality, the mortality rate increased by up to 13.7% when the temperature rose in men aged 15 to 24 years. As mentioned earlier, as the temperature rises, it is in line with the increasing number of outdoor activities for men to swim in the water. In the case of traffic accidents, where the largest number of additional deaths occurred, 92% were found to be concentrated between 15 and 64 years old. The researchers predicted that alcohol consumption increased as the temperature rose, and that it was more likely to lead to drunk driving in younger people than in older adults.
● Prepare for the coming heat wave
June of the Korean Peninsula has already recorded a record temperature and announced this summer. The Korea Meteorological Administration predicted that the number of heat waves this summer would be twice as high as last year. In order to provide better information about the heat wave to the people, the standard of the heat wave special report has been improved since this year. It is a method that uses the sensation temperature, not the special value using the existing temperature. In the meantime, we have focused on direct damage from heat waves. However, this study confirmed that the heat wave could damage not only direct damage but also secondary. Of course, because we predict the future based on past data, and the US and our environment are different, there is a limit to predicting our future in the future. However, we cannot deny the direction suggested by the study. If the temperature rises abnormally, if the individual's behavior and existing lifestyle are taken, the incidence of mortality due to injury is likely to increase. On the other hand, depending on what system we are equipped with and how we are going to change, it may decrease the mortality rate that will increase. With the Corona 19, the whole country is in a tumultuous state, but it is the reason to spend more time and research on heat wave guidelines and research even to prepare for the coming summer.
<References>
Robbie M.Parks, James E. Bennett, Helen Tamura-Wicks, Vasilis Kontis, Ralf Toumi, Goodarz Danaei and Majid Ezzati*, "Anomalously warm temperatures are associated with increased injury deaths", nature medicine 26, 65– 70(2020), doi.org/10.1038/s41591-019-0721-y