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Heatwave Definition and Impact on Cardiovascular Health: A Systematic Review
Julia Nawaro1, Lorenzo Gianquintieri1, Andrea Pagliosa2
1Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy.
Insights
Different definitions of heatwaves impact studies on cardiovascular health. Harmonizing heat definitions is recommended for better analysis of heatwave effects on heart health.
Area of Science:
- Environmental Health
- Cardiovascular Epidemiology
- Climate Science
Background:
- Extreme heat events pose significant risks to cardiovascular health, leading to increased morbidity and mortality.
- Recent literature shows varied approaches to defining heat, potentially affecting study outcomes.
- Understanding the impact of different heat definitions is crucial for accurate risk assessment.
Conclusions:
- The diversity in heat definitions complicates the analysis of heatwave trends and their cardiovascular impacts.
- International harmonization is recommended to establish a common standard for defining heat.
- Standardized definitions will improve the reliability and comparability of research on heat and cardiovascular health.
Abstract:
Objectives: We aimed to analyze recent literature on heat effects on cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, focusing on the adopted heat definitions and their eventual impact on the results of the analysis. Methods: The search was performed on PubMed, ScienceDirect, and Scopus databases: 54 articles, published between January 2018 and September 2022, were selected as relevant. Results: In total, 21 different combinations of criteria were found for defining heat, 12 of which were based on air temperature, while the others combined it with other meteorological factors. By a simulation study, we showed how such complex indices could result in different values at reference conditions depending on temperature. Heat thresholds, mostly set using percentile or absolute values of the index, were applied to compare the risk of a cardiovascular health event in heat days with the respective risk in non-heat days. The larger threshold's deviation from the mean annual temperature, as well as higher temperature thresholds within the same study location, led to stronger negative effects. Conclusion: To better analyze trends in the characteristics of heatwaves, and their impact on cardiovascular health, an international harmonization effort to define a common standard is recommendable.
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