Health impact of 2003 heat wave at Hospital de Riveira (A Coruña)

Last summer 2003 took place an atmospheric situation considered as a heat wave. Importance of environmental factors in chronic diseases is well known, but few works analyse those of heat excess as we do in this paper. We studied the effects of high temperatures on admission and mortality in Riveira, A Coruña, Spain, during the period from July 15th to August 15th 2003. Mean maximum temperature in this period was 26.1 degrees C. One hundred and thirty seven patients were admitted, age ranges between 16 and 93 years old. Sixteen died. Fifty four admissions (38.7%) were identified as related with heat wave and of those patients, 8 died. No heat stroke cases were identified. Main risk factors in our heat related admitted population, were previous lung disease and overweight. Heat related pathology is difficult to evaluate although it is quite important. It seems to be necessary to take measures in order to identify population at risk and reduce the effects related to this environmental factor since high risk patients are quite common in our daily practice.