Cooler temperatures in tropical climates increase heart attack risk
Researchers at the Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore have discovered that people living in tropical climates, which have narrow temperature ranges, are at increased risk of a heart attack – more specifically, a type of acute myocardial infarction.
It was also revealed that people aged 65 and above were about 20% more vulnerable to cooler temperatures compared to younger people, based on a 10-year national study of Singaporeans, said Professor Marcus Ong, Director of the Health Services & Systems Research Programme and the Pre-hospital & Emergency Research Centre (PERC) at Duke-NUS Medical School and Senior Consultant at the Department of Emergency Medicine at Singapore General Hospital (SGH).
The researchers had pulled and analysed data from the Singapore Myocardial Infarction Registry’s daily patient records, specifically looking for those who experienced a type of acute heart attack that happens when a blood vessel feeding the heart becomes partially blocked (non-ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction, or NSTEMI).
The onset of NSTEMI in these patients was cross-referenced with local meteorological data obtained from the National Environment Agency’s (NEA) weather stations across Singapore. The data included mean temperatures and rainfall.
According to over 60,000 NSTEMI reports, cooler ambient temperatures were independently associated with an increased risk of NSTEMI up to 10 days after a temperature drop. However, there were no gender differences relating to the effects of warmer or cooler temperatures on NSTEMI risk, nor were changes in rainfall associated with an increased risk of NSTEMI.
“There are several individual-level risk factors for cardiovascular disease, but none are as widely experienced as weather patterns,” supplied Dr. Joel Aik, an Environmental Epidemiologist and Adjunct Assistant Professor with PERC. “Daily weather variations have the capacity to trigger cardiovascular disease events in at-risk individuals, with particular implications for Singapore’s ageing population. In the context of climate change, these findings highlight a risk factor of substantial public health concern.”
The researchers are looking into identifying the biological pathways involved in increased vulnerability of the elderly to cold-related NSTEMI in the tropics.
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