Citation

Tseng CH, Lu LC, Lan SH, Hsieh YP, Lan SJ. Int. J. Environ. Health Res. 2017; 27(5): 344-354.

Affiliation

Department of Medical Research , China Medical University Hospital, China Medical University , Taichung , Taiwan.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/09603123.2017.1339782

PMID

28633538

Abstract

This study applied a vector error correction model to investigate the effects of ambient temperature (AT) and air quality index values on emergency care utilization (ECU). The Pollution Standards Index (PSI) and total suspended particulates (TSP) were used for analysis. Data were obtained from the National Health Insurance Research Database of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications and Ministry Environmental of Protection Administration of Taiwan. Data from January of 1998 to December of 2012 (180 months) were analyzed. Study results showed that, regardless of long-term equilibrium or short-term dynamics, a 1 °C increase in AT will decrease ECU, showing that AT strongly affects ECU. There were no significant corrections of long-term equilibrium of PSI and TSP on ECU. Only short-term TSP dynamics caused negative effects in the first ECU phase. Emergency care requires special monitoring of AT and TSP to respond to the increased number of high-risk patients consulting emergency departments.

Language: en

Keywords

Climate change; ambient temperature; emergency care; pollution standard index; total suspended particulate; vector error correction model