Will climate change affect our patients' health?
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Will climate change affect our patients' health?
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Fascinating article by Page et al this week in the British Journal of Psychiatry looking at whether the ambient temperature increasing affects the health of people with existing psychosis, dementia an
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Will climate change affect our patients' health?
posted at 8/6/2012 2:49 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 154
First: 19/1/2012 Last: 18/5/2013 |
Fascinating article by Page et al this week in the British Journal of Psychiatry looking at whether the ambient temperature increasing affects the health of people with existing psychosis, dementia and substance misuse - which they argue may be relevant as the climate changes, with heatwaves predicted to become more frequent, longer and more severe. They found that (I quote): 'Patients with mental illness showed an overall increase in risk of death of 4.9% (95% CI 2.0–7.8) per 1°C increase in temperature above the 93rd percentile of the annual temperature distribution. Younger patients and those with a primary diagnosis of substance misuse demonstrated greatest mortality risk.' People in the east Midlands and South East seem to need to be particularly aware, according to the Forrest plot! Forest plot of effect of temperature on relative risk of death by region in patients with psychosis, dementia and substance misuse. (copied from paper by Page et al, referenced below)  Reference:
You can tell I'm writing this whilst the rain and wind howls in London and a heatwave seems highly unlikely and a very inviting prospect I'd quite like to look forward to...but I wondered what the reasons for these increases in death in hot weather might be due to? What sorts of difficulties do you think environmental change will have on health? |
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Re: Will climate change affect our patients' health?
posted at 9/6/2012 11:37 AM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 2947
First: 10/3/2009 Last: 29/4/2013 |
Has anyone noted a rise in tide levels in their area in the last hundred years? We hear the sea is rising. If so 90% of Australians live within 100km of the coast. I am yet to be convinced the tide levels have changed. The pylons on bridges and piers are not going under. Inundation would have the most profound effects. We are in the midst of a wet period after prolonged drought and this is due to sea temperatures off Chile and a phenomenon called La Nina and El Nino which affects most of the southern hemisphere as well as Africa. The drying of our continent and rising sea levels are a threat as well as floods. I am not sure what is happening is just cyclical as we had terrible floods in the 1950s when I was a child. |
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Re: Will climate change affect our patients' health?
posted at 10/6/2012 11:44 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 2947
First: 10/3/2009 Last: 29/4/2013 |
As the older cities have buildings on riversides etc such as London, what evidence is there that the mean sea level from tidal records has risen at all in the last 100 years? Although not a climate change skeptic, I think we need to be more dispassionate and objective about evidence as the lay press now has made anyone who dissents from the "party line dogma" an apostate. As for how this affects the health of people, I am yet to be convinced we have reached any new state of environmental degradation apart from that caused by ecological vandalism which is ubiquitous.
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Re: Will climate change affect our patients' health?
posted at 11/6/2012 12:00 AM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 2947
First: 10/3/2009 Last: 29/4/2013 |
In Response to Will climate change affect our patients' health?: Fascinating article by Page et al this week in the British Journal of Psychiatry looking at whether the ambient temperature increasing affects the health of people with existing psychosis, dementia and substance misuse - which they argue may be relevant as the climate changes, with heatwaves predicted to become more frequent, longer and more severe. They found that (I quote): 'Patients with mental illness showed an overall increase in risk of death of 4.9% (95% CI 2.0–7.8) per 1°C increase in temperature above the 93rd percentile of the annual temperature distribution. Younger patients and those with a primary diagnosis of substance misuse demonstrated greatest mortality risk.' People in the east Midlands and South East seem to need to be particularly aware, according to the Forrest plot! Forest plot of effect of temperature on relative risk of death by region in patients with psychosis, dementia and substance misuse. (copied from paper by Page et al, referenced below) Reference: Lisa A. Page , Shakoor Hajat , R. Sari Kovats , and Louise M. Howard Temperature-related deaths in people with psychosis, dementia and substance misuse . Brit J Psych June 2012 200 : 485 - 490 http://bjp.rcpsych.org/content/200/6/485.full You can tell I'm writing this whilst the rain and wind howls in London and a heatwave seems highly unlikely and a very inviting prospect I'd quite like to look forward to...but I wondered what the reasons for these increases in death in hot weather might be due to? What sorts of difficulties do you think environmental change will have on health? Posted by alicelomax I doubt this effect is even noticed in Australia although one astute observer of H.sapiens briannicus once observed that "mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun."
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Re: Will climate change affect our patients' health?
posted at 11/6/2012 9:08 AM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 1264
First: 13/4/2010 Last: 20/5/2013 |
I don't think tides are rising Odysseus - when I look at Scottish Estuaries many bridges had their records high tides many years ago not recently. Bit of a rubbish anecdote I know but true nonetheless. And, of course, when I see all the raised beaches around the Scottish coast it reminds me that sea levels were once much higher (even accounting for the land rising once all the pressure of the ice was lifted). Such is the pressure for housing that we continue to build on flood plains, salt marshes, etc. and then wonder why these places sometimes get inundated. As Homer would say "D'oh!" |
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Re: Will climate change affect our patients' health?
posted at 11/6/2012 11:45 AM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 2947
First: 10/3/2009 Last: 29/4/2013 |
And yet we seen on our TV stories about Polynesian islands facing inundation. Indeed sea levels are at their lowest for about 100,000 years. Our bay has been a paddock four times in 160,000 years. And yet the rhetoric goes on. There are parts of the Great Barrier Reef with aboriginal artefacts on them. |
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