Story at a glance
- Rising global temperatures can increase risk and incidence of heat-related illnesses like heat stress, heat exhaustion and heatstroke.
- A new report outlines findings from a data analysis of patients seeking medical services in 2016 through 2021.
- The percentage of patients diagnosed with each of the three heat related illnesses increased from 2016 to 2021.
The percentage of patients diagnosed with heat stress, heat exhaustion or heatstroke was consistently higher in 2021 compared to 2016, according to a new report published by FAIR Health.
This finding may be especially important in the context of rising average temperatures and increased extreme heat events due to climate change.
Heat stress can include symptoms like fainting, cramps, fatigue and swelling. Heat exhaustion involves heavy sweating and rapid pulse and is typically associated with physical exertion in high temperature environments, according to the report.
The most serious of the three diagnoses, heatstroke, is when the body can’t control its own temperature. If body temperature rises, sweating might become dysfunctional, and the body can’t cool itself. It can also involve confusion, loss of consciousness and skin that is hot and dry to the touch, as well as seizures, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The authors of the report found that the percentages of patients affected by the illnesses was consistently higher in each month in 2021 when compared to the corresponding month in 2016.
The biggest increase was in the month of June. There was about a 53 percent increase in patients with heat exhaustion in June 2021 compared to June 2016. Overall, 1.26 percent of all patients in June 2021 were diagnosed with heat exhaustion, while in June 2016 just 0.83 percent of patients were.
Heat stress increased the most in the months of May and June, seeing rises of about 38 and 32 percent, respectively. For heatstroke, the biggest difference was in September.
The share of patients affected by all three heat-related diagnoses increased along with age, with older adults affected the most out of all age groups. Of all people 65 and older who sought medical services for the total of May to September for all years, 2.6 percent were diagnosed with heat exhaustion, 1.9 with percent heat stress and 0.7 percent with heatstroke.
One of the limitations of the dataset used in this report is that it only includes people privately insured by insurers and administrators that opt into the study. This means Medicaid patients are not included in the analysis. In addition, the report has not been peer-reviewed.
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