Unhealthy Effects of Atmospheric Temperature and Pressure on the Occurrence of Myocardial Infarction and Coronary Deaths
- 6 July 1999
- journal article
- other
- Published by Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health) in Circulation
- Vol. 100 (1), E1-7
- https://doi.org/10.1161/01.cir.100.1.e1
Abstract
Background —Associations between an increase in coronary heart disease occurrence and low atmospheric temperatures have been reported from mortality data and hospital admission registries. However, concomitant increases in noncardiovascular case fatality rates and selection bias of hospital cases may weaken this observation. In this study, we addressed the question of the relationships between fatal and nonfatal coronary diseases and meteorological variables in 10-year data (1985 to 1994) collected in a morbidity registry (Lille-WHO MONICA Project) monitoring 257 000 men from 25 to 64 years of age. Methods and Results —The impacts of atmospheric temperature (in Celsius) and pressure (in millibars) on daily rates of myocardial infarction (MI) and coronary deaths were studied. Percentages of variation of event rates according to meteorological variations were derived from the relative risks estimated with a Poisson regression model. During the 10-year longitudinal survey, 3616 events occurred. Rates of events decreased linearly with increasing atmospheric temperature. For atmospheric pressure, we detected a V-shaped relationship, with a minimum of daily event rates at 1016 mbar. A 10°C decrease was associated with a 13% increase in event rates ( P P =0.001) and an 11% increase ( P =0.01) in event rates, respectively. These effects were independent and influenced both coronary morbidity and mortality rates, with stronger effects in older age groups and for recurrent events. Conclusions —This longitudinal study is the first to estimate the attributable effect of meteorological variables on MI morbidity in population and strongly argues for a systematic fight against cold in cardiovascular disease prevention, particularly in older ages and after a first MI.Keywords
This publication has 14 references indexed in Scilit:
- Seasonal Distribution of Acute Myocardial Infarction in the Second National Registry of Myocardial InfarctionJournal of the American College of Cardiology, 1998
- EUROASPIRE: A European Society of Cardiology survey of secondary prevention of coronary heart disease: Principal resultsEuropean Heart Journal, 1997
- Cold exposure and winter mortality from ischaemic heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, respiratory disease, and all causes in warm and cold regions of EuropeThe Lancet, 1997
- Genetic Susceptibility to Death from Coronary Heart Disease in a Study of TwinsThe New England Journal of Medicine, 1994
- Mechanisms of cold intolerances in patients with anginaJournal of the American College of Cardiology, 1994
- Seasonal variations of plasma fibrinogen and factor VII activity in the elderly: winter infections and death from cardiovascular diseaseThe Lancet, 1994
- Temperature and risk factors for ischaemic heart disease in the Caerphilly prospective study.Published by BMJ ,1993
- Seasons, Temperature and Coronary DiseaseInternational Journal of Epidemiology, 1993
- Circadian and seasonal factors in the pathogenesis of acute myocardial infarction: the influence of environmental temperature.Heart, 1993
- LOW INDOOR TEMPERATURES AND MORBIDITY IN THE ELDERLYAge and Ageing, 1986