Effect of heat waves on morbidity and mortality due to Parkinson's disease in Madrid: A time-series analysis

BACKGROUND: Parkinson's disease (PD) is one of the factors which are associated with a higher risk of mortality during heat waves. The use of certain neuroleptic medications to control some of this disease's complications would appear to be related to an increase in heat-related mortality....

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Linares-Gil, Cristina, Martínez-Martín, Pablo, Rodriguez-Blazquez, Carmen, Forjaz, Maria João, Carmona-Alferez, Rocio, Diaz-Jimenez, Julio
Format: article
Publication Date:2016
Country:España
Institution:Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII)
Repository:Repisalud
Language:English
OAI Identifier:oai:repisalud.isciii.es:20.500.12105/7997
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12105/7997
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Air Pollution
Cities
Heat Stress Disorders
Hospitalization
Hot Temperature
Humans
Models, Theoretical
Morbidity
Parkinson Disease
Public Health
Risk Factors
Spain
Description
Summary:BACKGROUND: Parkinson's disease (PD) is one of the factors which are associated with a higher risk of mortality during heat waves. The use of certain neuroleptic medications to control some of this disease's complications would appear to be related to an increase in heat-related mortality. OBJECTIVE: To analyse the relationship and quantify the short-term effect of high temperatures during heat wave episodes in Madrid on daily mortality and PD-related hospital admissions. METHODS: We used an ecological time-series study and fit Poisson regression models. We analysed the daily number of deaths due to PD and the number of daily PD-related emergency hospital admissions in the city of Madrid, using maximum daily temperature (°C) as the main environmental variable and chemical air pollution as covariates. We controlled for trend, seasonalities, and the autoregressive nature of the series. RESULTS: There was a maximum daily temperature of 30°C at which PD-related admissions were at a minimum. Similarly, a temperature of 34°C coincides with an increase in the number of admissions. For PD-related admissions, the Relative Risk (RR) for every increase of 1°C above the threshold temperature was 1.13 IC95%:(1.03-1.23) at lags 1 and 5; and for daily PD-related mortality, the RR was 1.14 IC95%:(1.01-1.28) at lag 3. CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that suffering from PD is a risk factor that contributes to the excess morbidity and mortality associated with high temperatures, and is relevant from the standpoint of public health prevention plans.