At more research that has been done to date globally, to investigate the relationship between extreme temperatures and death from strokesa team of researchers led by the University’s THChan School of Public Health Harvard found that for every 1,000 deaths from ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke, about eleven were attributable to extreme cold or extreme heat.

The researchers used data from the Global Environmental Health Consortium “Multi-Country Multi-City Network”. During the period 1979-2019, the database recorded more than 3.4 million deaths from ischemic stroke and more than 2.4 million deaths from hemorrhagic stroke in 522 cities in 25 countries worldwide.

As he explains to APE-MPE, Barak Allahmada researcher at Harvard University’s Department of Environmental Health and lead author of the study, published in the journalStroke”, each region had its own definition of what is considered an extreme temperature, depending on the prevailing climatic conditions. “In each city, we defined 2.5% of the hottest and coldest days as days with extreme temperatures,” he explains.

The research team therefore found that for every 1,000 deaths from ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke, the 2.5% of days with extreme temperatures during the period studied contributed to 9.1 additional cold deaths and 2.2 heat deaths. .

“Strokes are the second leading cause of death worldwide and this burden caused by extreme temperatures is very important in terms of global health. The idea behind this research was to reach out to health professionals and tell them that climate change is not a battle for environmentalists, it’s a battle for them and their patients,” says Mr. Allahmad.

Although many countries around the world were studied, the researchers did not find significant differences in their findings depending on the climatic conditions of each country. But they found that low-income countries had higher death rates from heat-related hemorrhagic strokes than high-income countries and may have higher death rates from cold-related hemorrhagic strokes, although the data in this case was not final. The researchers hypothesize that good infrastructure and indoor temperature control systems and lower rates of outdoor work in high-income countries, as well as poorer quality of health care in low-income countries could explain the differences.

Mr. Allahmad stresses that “as temperatures become more extreme, we predict an increase in fatal strokes and a widening of the disparity in stroke mortality between high- and low-income countries, as the latter are likely to bear the brunt of climate change.” ».

The Greek also participated in the study Professor of Environmental Sciences at Harvard University, Petros Koutrakis. It is not only strokes that are affected by extreme temperatures, Mr. Koutrakis emphasizes to APE-MPE. The research shows that “in addition to the cardiovascular effects of high temperatures, recent studies have shown an increase in suicides and emergency visits to hospitals for mental illness.”

Greece was not included in the study (there are only data for Cyprusthe Italythe Spain and Portugal from the southern European countries). However, in a recent speech to the Greek Parliament, Mr. Koutrakis had underlined that Greece will be greatly affected by climate change and the climate effects will lead to an increase in fires, more heat waves, more floods, less snow in the mountains, water shortages, destruction of agriculture, increased electricity consumption, reduced productivity, less income from tourism and more mortality and morbidity.

As he further pointed out, the climate crisis will mainly affect people with health problems. “Considering the mediocre state of health of the Greek population, the effects of climate change will be dramatic. We need to change many bad habits if we want to prevent a further crisis of the health care system: reduce smoking and alcohol, eat less meat, do not use pesticides and protect our environment,” he observed.

In the limitations of the study, the authors note that rural areas and countries in southern Asia, Africa, and the Middle East are underrepresented. They also clarify that no individual-level demographics were collected or examined, and that the study focused only on stroke deaths, and additional research on the incidence of non-fatal strokes would provide further understanding of the actual temperature burden. Mr. Allahmad emphasizes, moreover, that he aims to investigate the burden of extreme climate on health through other diseases as well, such as lung diseases or pulmonary embolism.