The association between temperature and alcohol- and substance-related disorder hospital visits in New York State

BackgroundLimited evidence exists on how temperature increases are associated with hospital visits from alcohol- and substance-related disorders, despite plausible behavioral and physiological pathways.MethodsIn the present study, we implemented a case-crossover design, which controls for seasonal patterns, long-term trends, and non- or slowly-varying confounders, with distributed lag non-linear temperature terms (0-6 days) to estimate associations between daily ZIP Code-level temperature and alcohol- and substance-related disorder hospital visit rates in New York State during 1995-2014. We also examined four substance-related disorder sub-causes (cannabis, cocaine, opioid, sedatives).ResultsHere we show that, for alcohol-related disorders, a daily increase in temperature from the daily minimum (-30.1 & DEG;C (-22.2 & DEG;F)) to the 75th percentile (18.8 & DEG;C (65.8 & DEG;F)) across 0-6 lag days is associated with a cumulative 24.6% (95%CI,14.6%-34.6%) increase in hospital visit rates, largely driven by increases on the day of and day before hospital visit, with an association larger outside New York City. For substance-related disorders, we find evidence of a positive association at temperatures from the daily minimum (-30.1 & DEG;C (-22.2 & DEG;F)) to the 50th percentile (10.4 & DEG;C (50.7 & DEG;F)) (37.7% (95%CI,27.2%-48.2%), but not at higher temperatures. Findings are consistent across age group, sex, and social vulnerability.ConclusionsOur work highlights how hospital visits from alcohol- and substance-related disorders are currently impacted by elevated temperatures and could be further affected by rising temperatures resulting from climate change. Enhanced social infrastructure and health system interventions could mitigate these impacts. We investigated the relationship between temperature and hospital visits related to alcohol and other drugs including cannabis, cocaine, opioids, and sedatives in New York State. We found that higher temperatures resulted in more hospital visits for alcohol. For other drugs, higher temperatures also resulted in more hospital visits but only up to a certain temperature level. Our findings suggest that rising temperatures, including those caused by climate change, may influence hospital visits for alcohol and other drugs, emphasizing the need for appropriate and proportionate social and health interventions, as well as highlighting potential hidden burdens of climate change. Parks et al. find that higher temperatures are associated with increased hospital visits for alcohol- and substance-related disorders in New York State. This suggests that rising temperatures due to climate change may impact the burden of mental health-related conditions.