Association between ambient temperature and economic burden of unintentional injury in Tianjin: a case-crossover study

ObjectiveUnintentional injuries constitute a significant global public health issue with significant social and economic costs. Previous evidence suggests ambient temperatures are associated with unintentional injury occurrences. However, the impacts of ambient temperature on unintentional injury economic burden have received little research attention. The objective of the study was to examine the association between ambient temperature and economic burden of unintentional injury.DesignTime-stratified case-crossover study.SettingThis study was performed at Tianjin Hospital, the largest trauma centre in Tianjin, by applying a hospital-based time-stratified case-crossover study.ParticipantsThe 12 241 patients admitted with unintentional injuries and meteorological data were collected in Tianjin, China in 2021.Primary and secondary outcomeThe association between ambient temperature and unintentional injury hospitalisation was evaluated with a distributed lag non-linear model, further temperature-attributable economic burden of unintentional injuries was quantified, and adjusted for demographic characteristics, injury mechanism and injury location of injury.ResultsThe temperatures below 11.5°C were significantly associated with the increased risk of unintentional injury hospitalisation in Tianjin, in 2021. The effect was maximised on the current day. The relatively low temperature was responsible for 25.44% (95% CI 13.74, 33.09) of unintentional injury patients, and was associated with the number of unintentional injury patients (3114, 95% CI 1608, 4036). The relatively low temperature was associated with the excess economic burden for unintentional injury (¥197.52 million, 95% CI 102.00, 256.00; about 27.10 million dollars), accounting for 26.49% of the total economic burden. The cold temperatures generally had greater impacts on males (¥136.46 million, 95% CI 83.28, 172.42; about 18.67 million dollars) and the elderly (¥74.35 million, 95% CI 14.87, 102.14; about 10.24 million dollars).ConclusionThe temperature was associated with approximately 3000 unintentional injury patients and ¥200 million (27 million dollars), accounting for 26% of the total economic burden in Tianjin, 2021.