J Korean Soc Emerg Med.
2014 Oct;25(5):595-601. 10.0000/jksem.2014.25.5.595.
Development and Implementation of Emergency Department based Heat related Illness Active Surveillance System: Effect of Heat Index on Daily Emergency Department Visits due to Heat related Illness
- Affiliations
-
- 1Department of Emergency Medicine, Seoul National University Hospital, Korea.
- 2Department of Emergency Medicine, Seoul National University Boramae Medical Center, Korea. emkjhong@gmail.com
- 3Department of Emergency Medicine, Kyungpook National University Hospital, Korea.
- 4Department of Emergency Medicine, Jeju National University Hospital, Korea.
- 5Graduate School of Medicine Inha University, Korea.
- 6National Medical Center, Korea.
- KMID: 2333992
- DOI: http://doi.org/10.0000/jksem.2014.25.5.595
Abstract
- PURPOSE
To evaluate the effect of heat wave on emergency department (ED) visits due to heat related illness, we developed an ED based active surveillance system. We want to identify epidemiology of ED visits due to heat related illness and determine the effect of heat index on daily ED visits due to heat related illness.
METHODS
We developed an ED based active surveillance system for adults who visited the ED due to heat stroke, heat exhaustion, heat syncope, heat edema, and heat cramp. We collected demographic and clinical variables, risk factors, and heat index by standardized registry on the webpage. We operated the surveillance into 16 emergency departments in Daegu City from June to September 2011. We analyzed epidemiologic variables descriptively and assessed the effect of heat index on the number of daily ED visits by multivariate Poisson regression analysis.
RESULTS
During the study period, 34 cases were registered and nine cases were heat stroke. Heat stroke patients were older, and had more unemployment status than those with other heat related illness (p<0.05). More ED visits due to heat related illness were observed during the danger period than during the cool period, classified by heat index severity (Adjusted odds ratio: 1.72, 95% CI: 1.33-2.23). Increasing heat index by one degree caused more ED visits due to heat related illness (Adjusted incident rate ratio: 1.13, 95% CI: 1.07-1.19).
CONCLUSION
We developed an ED based active surveillance system and observed more elderly persons and lower educational level in patients with heat stroke. In addition, increase in heat index significantly affected more daily ED visits due to heat related illness.
- Full Text Links
-
- Actions
-
Cited
- CITED
-
- Close
- Share
-
- Similar articles
-
- Characteristics of Summer Heatwave Victims of Emergency Department Visits in Korea During 2011: Results from the Surveillance System of Heat-related Illness Based on Emergency Department
- Diagnosis and treatment of patients with heat-related illnesses
- A case of heat stroke in which first symptom as cardiac arrest with ventricular fibrillation
- Status and Awareness of Excessive Heat Exposure among Agricultural Workers
- Factors affecting heat-related diseases in outdoor workers exposed to extreme heat
