Abstract
Adverse mental health outcomes have been associated with high temperatures in studies worldwide. Few studies explore a broad range of mental health outcomes, and to our knowledge, none are specific to NC, USA. This ecological study explored the relationship between ambient temperature and mental health outcomes (suicide, self-harm and suicide ideation, anxiety and stress, mood disorders, and depression) in six urban counties across the state of NC, USA. We applied a quasi-Poisson generalized linear model combined with a distributed lag nonlinear model (DLNM) to examine the short-term effects of daily ambient temperature on emergency admissions for mental health conditions (2016 to 2018) and violent deaths (2004 to 2018). The results were predominately insignificant, with some key exceptions. The county with the greatest temperature range (Wake) displays higher levels of significance, while counties with the lowest temperature ranges (New Hanover and Pitt) are almost entirely insignificant. Self-harm and suicidal ideation peak in the warm months (July) and generally exhibit a protective effect at lower temperatures and shorter lag intervals. Whereas anxiety, depression, and major depressive disorders peak in the cooler months (May and September). Suicide is the only outcome that favored a 20-day lag period in the sensitivity analysis, although the association with temperature was insignificant. Our findings suggest additional research is needed across a suite of mental health outcomes to fully understand the effects of temperatures on mental health.
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Acknowledgements
The North Carolina Disease Event Tracking and Epidemiologic Collection Tool (NC DETECT) is an advanced, statewide public health surveillance system. NC DETECT is funded with federal funds by the North Carolina Division of Public Health (NC DPH), the Public Health Emergency Preparedness Grant (PHEP), and managed through a collaboration between NC DPH and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Department of Emergency Medicine’s Carolina Center for Health Informatics (UNC CCHI). The findings and conclusions in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Public Health.
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This work was supported by the Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) award (grant #2044839) from the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) award (grant # 1R15ES033817-01).
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Minor, T., Sugg, M. & Runkle, J.D. Short-term exposure to temperature and mental health in North Carolina: a distributed lag nonlinear analysis. Int J Biometeorol 67, 573–586 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-023-02436-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-023-02436-0