Warmer summer nights confer elevated risk for CV death in certain men
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Warmer summer nights were associated with increased risk for CV death in men aged 60 to 64 years, researchers reported in BMJ Open.
“There are few present age-specific or sex-specific data concerning associations between summer nocturnal surface air temperature and CVD mortality. We posited that summer nocturnal surface air temperature anomalies (defined as deviations from 30-year [1981-2010] baseline averages) associate with increased CVD mortality among men and women between the ages of 60 and 69 years,” wrote Haris Majeed, MSc, theoretical physicist and teaching assistant at the University of Toronto, and John S. Floras, MD, DPhil, FRCPC, professor of medicine at the University of Toronto.
The researchers conducted a monthly time series analysis on sex-specific CVD deaths from 2001 to 2015 in England and Wales among adults aged 60 to 64 years and 65 to 69 years to determine associations between summer surface air temperature anomalies and CVD death rates. They performed a similar analysis for the same years for men aged 60 to 64 years and 65 to 69 years in King County, Washington, which has a similar latitude to England and Wales.
The analysis included 39,912 (68.9% men) CVD deaths in England and Wales and 488 CVD deaths among men in King County.
In the England and Wales analysis, a 1°C increase in anomalous summer surface air temperature was associated with a 3.1% increase (95% CI, 0.3-5.9) in risk for CVD mortality in men aged 60 to 64 years, but not in men aged 65 to 69 years or in women in either age group.
In the King County analysis, a 1°C rise in anomalous summer surface air temperature conferred a 4.8% (95% CI, 1.7-8.1) elevated risk for CVD mortality in men aged 60 to 64 years, but not in men aged 65 to 69 years.
“The present findings should stimulate similar investigation of exposure and event rates in other populous mid-latitude to high-latitude regions,” the researchers wrote. “Considering the growing likelihood of extreme summers in western U.S. and U.K., our results invite preventive population health initiatives and novel urban policies aimed at reducing future risk of CVD events.”
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