Prevention & lipidsCross-sectional study
Ambient temperature and risk of cardiovascular and respiratory adverse health outcomes: a nationwide cross-sectional study from Spain
- Cross-sectional study
- nationwide
- quasi-Poisson regression with multilevel multivariate meta-regression
Authors' conclusion
Exposure to low and high temperatures was associated with a greater risk of morbidity and mortality from multiple cardiovascular and respiratory conditions, and heating was the most effective societal adaptive measure to reduce cold-related mortality.
Study context
- Population
- 48 Spanish provinces, 2004–2019; summer and winter seasons analysed separately48 provinces
- Exposure
- Extreme vs optimum temperature
- Outcome
- Cause-specific emergency hospitalizations and mortality from CV and respiratory diseases
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Each group vs optimum temperatureRelative risk (95% CI)
Heathypertension mortality; empirical CI
1.510(1.251–1.821)
HeatHF mortality; empirical CI
1.528(1.353–1.725)
Heatpneumonia mortality; empirical CI
2.224(1.685–2.936)
Heatpneumonia hospitalization; empirical CI
1.288(1.240–1.339)
Heatacute bronchitis and bronchiolitis hospitalization; empirical CI
1.307(1.219–1.402)
HeatCOPD hospitalization; empirical CI
1.260(1.158–1.372)
Low temperatureHF hospitalization; empirical CI
1.537(1.329–1.779)
Low temperatureCOPD hospitalization; empirical CI
1.885(1.646–2.159)
Low temperatureacute MI mortality; empirical CI
1.860(1.546–2.238)
Low temperaturepneumonia mortality; empirical CI
1.734(1.219–2.468)
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
Effect modification by individual factors
- Women and the elderly more vulnerable to heat; people with secondary education less susceptible to cold
Cold-related deaths with heating access raised to 95.6% (meta-regression)
- Reduction in deaths due to cold
- 59.5% (57.2 to 63.5)
Original publication
Ambient temperature and risk of cardiovascular and respiratory adverse health outcomes: a nationwide cross-sectional study from Spain. Eur J Prev Cardiol. Published 13 February 2024. doi:10.1093/eurjpc/zwae021
Summarised from the published abstract; every number is checked against it