The Effectiveness of Intervening on Social Isolation to Reduce Mortality during Heat Waves in Aged Population: A Retrospective Ecological Study.
Int J Environ Res Public Health
; 18(21)2021 11 04.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1512301
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Heat waves are correlated with increased mortality in the aged population. Social isolation is known as a vulnerability factor. This study aims at evaluating the correlation between an intervention to reduce social isolation and the increase in mortality in the population over 80 during heat waves.METHODS:
This study adopted a retrospective ecologic design. We compared the excess mortality rate (EMR) in the over-80 population during heat waves in urban areas of Rome (Italy) where a program to reduce social isolation was implemented, to others where it was not implemented. We measured the mortality of the summer periods from 2015 to 2019 compared with 2014 (a year without heat waves). Winter mortality, cadastral income, and the proportion of people over 90 were included in the multivariate Poisson regression.RESULTS:
The EMR in the intervention and controls was 2.70% and 3.81%, respectively. The rate ratio was 0.70 (c.i. 0.54-0.92, p-value 0.01). The incidence rate ratio (IRR) of the interventions, with respect to the controls, was 0.76 (c.i. 0.59-0.98). After adjusting for other variables, the IRR was 0.44 (c.i. 0.32-0.60).CONCLUSIONS:
Reducing social isolation could limit the impact of heat waves on the mortality of the elderly population.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Social Isolation
/
Hot Temperature
Type of study:
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
Limits:
Aged
/
Humans
Language:
English
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Ijerph182111587
Similar
MEDLINE
...
LILACS
LIS