A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association finds that older adults are hospitalized for serious illnesses such as kidney failure, septicemia, kidney and urinary tract infections during a heat wave in the US..

A team of scientists from the Department of Biological Statistics at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) in Boston, led by Dr. Jennifer Bobb, notes that extreme heat is the most common cause of weather-related deaths in the United States..

Earlier this year, a report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that from 2006 to 2010, about 31% of climate-related deaths were caused by heat, including heatstroke and sunstroke..

Researchers are confident that this number will grow because, as a result of global climate change, such temperature anomalies are observed more and more often..

It is well known that the elderly are most sensitive to high temperatures.. The US CDC notes that older people react worse to sudden temperature changes, so they are at the highest risk of hospitalization in very hot weather..

Dr. Bobb and her colleagues write that the current understanding of the effects of extreme heat on the body of the elderly is based on the results of old studies, and studies of a very modest scale.. Doctors are aware of consequences such as heat stroke, dehydration, respiratory and cardiovascular problems.

Harvard scientists decided to independently analyze how extremely high temperatures affect the frequency of hospitalizations of older people with certain conditions..

To do this, they used the Medicare database.. A total of 23.7 million patients aged 65 years and older from 1,943 counties across all US states were analyzed.. All patients were admitted to the hospital at least once between 1999 and 2010. In total, 214 reasons were indicated in the list of reasons for hospitalization.. The scientists also collected information from 4,000 temperature sensors across the country..

5 most dangerous conditions during a heat wave.

The team identified 5 conditions that have been associated with an increased risk of hospitalization for older adults during periods of extreme heat.. These periods were defined by scientists as an increase in air temperature above 99% of the normal daily temperature in the district for more than 2 days in a row..

Heatstroke was the #1 cause of hospitalization. During heatwaves, older people were 2.5 times more likely to be hospitalized with heatstroke. Also, older people were 18% more likely to be admitted to hospital with fluid and electrolyte disorders, 14% more likely to have kidney failure, 10% more likely to have urinary tract infections, and 6% more likely to have septicemia..

The risk of hospitalization with these five conditions was greater the higher the air temperature and the duration of the heat.. Commenting on the results of his study, Bobb writes:

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Last month, the Royal Society (UK) again published the results of studies that warn humanity of the dangerous consequences of global climate change.. In particular, the report states that by 2100 the number of days with extremely high temperatures, which are dangerous for the elderly, will increase by 3 times.. Therefore, scientists call on the governments of all countries to join forces and act more actively to stop global warming and "

medbe. en.