What heat brings to acute care

Researchers screened more than 1,800 diagnosis categories across nearly 917,000 acute-care encounters in Chicago.

1

Extreme heat increased acute-care presentations for renal disorders, dermatologic conditions, and injury-related diagnoses in adults in Chicago.
2

The study analyzed 916,904 emergency encounters among 372,140 adults across four Chicago-area health care systems from 2011 to 2023.
3

Extreme heat was defined as daily maximum temperatures at least 33.67 °C, linked to patients' residential census tracts.
4

Thirty-three diagnoses met reporting criteria, including glomerular disorders, edema, and acute kidney failure, associated with high temperatures.
5

The study's limitations included potential biases in patient demographics and lack of external validation for the findings.

1