What is it about?
As many cardiovascular and respiratory diseases are related to outdoor temperatures, the risk of onset and death can be estimated from outdoor temperatures. In Japan in 2020, the year of the COVID-19 epidemic, there was a large decrease in deaths from these diseases. We have estimated how many more deaths from cardiovascular and respiratory diseases would have occurred if there had been no COVID-19 outbreak, using the outside temperature for that year.
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Why is it important?
The statistical relationship between average monthly temperatures in the last 10 years (2010-2019) before the COVID-19 epidemic and mortality from cardiovascular and respiratory diseases estimated that if 2020 had been a normal year, these mortality rates could have been up to 1.5 times higher in that year. The decline in the outdoor active population in that year was significant, with a 40-50% decline in the population in the central 23 wards of Tokyo during the period from 17 April to 14 May 2020, when the government declared a nationwide state of emergency.
Perspectives
From a health perspective, increased outdoor activity in extremely hot or cold weather and climate conditions can increase the risk of cardiovascular and respiratory disease and death, so staying at home on such days can help protect health. However, staying at home for long periods of time can lead to problems such as lack of exercise and mental stress, which in turn can be detrimental to health. Therefore, it is important to consider both the risks and benefits to health in everyday life. In the future, we hope to use the results of this research to develop warnings for heart attacks and strokes using weather data.
Dr. Yukitaka Ohashi
Okayama University of Science
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on changes in temperature-sensitive cardiovascular and respiratory disease mortality in Japan, PLoS ONE, October 2022, PLOS,
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0275935.
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