Extreme Temperatures Linked to CVD Mortality

A global study concluded that exposure to extreme hot and cold temperatures was associated with a higher mortality from multiple common cardiovascular diseases (CVD). The study used data of daily counts of specific CVD death from 567 cities in 27 countries across 5 continents in overlapping periods ranging from 1979 to 2019. The analyses included deaths from any CVD (32 154 935), ischemic heart disease (11 745 880), stroke (9 351 312), heart failure (3 673 723), and arrhythmia (670 859). At extreme temperature percentiles, heat (99th percentile) and cold (1st percentile) were associated with higher risk of dying from any CVD, ischemic heart disease, stroke, and heart failure as compared to the minimum mortality temperature (the temperature associated with least mortality). Across a range of extreme temperatures, hot days (above 97.5th percentile) and cold days (below 2.5th percentile) accounted for 2.2 and 9.1 excess deaths for every 1000 cardiovascular deaths, respectively. Heart failure was associated with the highest excess deaths proportion from extreme hot and cold days with 2.6 and 12.8 for every 1000 heart failure deaths, respectively. The findings are in line with previous limited studies. Source: https://www.ahajournals.org/