Abstract
Background: During the summer of 1999, Chicago’s second deadliest heat wave of the
decade resulted in at least 80 deaths. The high mortality, exceeded only by a 1995
heat wave, provided the opportunity to investigate the risks associated with heat-related
deaths and to examine the effectiveness of targeted heat-relieving interventions.
Methods: We conducted a case-control study to determine risk factors for heat-related
death. We collected demographic, health, and behavior information for 63 case patients
and 77 neighborhood-and-age-matched control subjects and generated odds ratios (ORs)
for each potential risk factor.
Results: Fifty-three percent of the case patients were aged <65 years, and psychiatric
illness was almost twice as common in the younger than the older age group. In the
multivariate analysis, the strongest risk factors for heat-related death were living
alone (OR=8.1; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.4–48.1) and not leaving home daily
(OR=5.8; 95% CI, 1.5–22.0). The strongest protective factor was a working air conditioner
(OR=0.2; 95% CI, 0.1–0.7). Over half (53%) of the 80 decedents were seen or spoken
to on the day of or day before their deaths.
Conclusions: A working air conditioner is the strongest protective factor against
heat-related death. The relatively younger age of case patients in 1999 may be due
to post-1995 interventions that focused on the elderly of Chicago. However, social
isolation and advanced age remain important risk factors. Individual social contacts
and educational messages targeted toward at-risk populations during heat waves may
decrease the number of deaths in these groups.
Keywords
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© 2002 American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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- Heat-related illness: Current status of prevention effortsAmerican Journal of Preventive MedicineVol. 22Issue 4
