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When the temperature heats up, so do emergency rooms, according to a massive study of Chicago hospital and urgent care records, which found increased kidney complaints, skin problems, varicose veins, and even mental health issues.
Northwestern University medical school researchers pored through records of 916,404 visits to hospital emergency rooms and urgent care centers in Chicago from 2011 to 2023 to see if they could spot trends in illnesses and injuries when the temperature hits 92.6 degrees Fahrenheit (33.7 degrees Celsius) or higher. They found that when it gets hot, more than a dozen broad categories of injuries and illnesses become more frequent, including some that most people don’t associate with heat, according to the study in Science Advances.
While the study looked only at Chicago, outside experts said it highlights underestimated health problems and rising costs that affect much of the warming world.
This study “helps confirm that we’ve been underestimating health risks from heat exposures,” said Dr. Jonathan Patz, chair of health and environment at the University of Wisconsin, who wasn’t part of the research.
Northwestern researchers looked through all the records to see what became more frequent, instead of just focusing on known heat-related problems.
“Heat-related illness is undercounted when studies only search for explicit heat codes like heat stroke,” said Dr. Nicholas Cozzi, president-elect of the Illinois College of Emergency Physicians. He wasn’t part of the study.
Cozzi said that the study has an important message for the public: “Don’t wait for heat stroke symptoms to take heat seriously. If you have a chronic condition—kidney disease, MS (Multiple Sclerosis), venous issues—treat extreme heat days as a trigger for extra caution, not just an outdoor-activity problem.”
Many of the diseases that saw an uptick in heat had to do with kidneys and the renal system. The skin issues are known by doctors but not often seen in non-medical literature, study senior author Dr. Abel Kho said.
Kho said the study had him thinking back to the nights when he worked the emergency room: “When it’s hot out, it’s going to be a busy night. That’s just how it goes.”
This article was provided by The Associated Press.