Non-fatal Injury burden attributed to night-time temperature during 1990s-2010s in China

• Published in: NPJ climate and atmospheric science 2024-11, Vol.7 (1), p.271-9, Article 271
• Main Authors: Hu, Jianxiong, Er, Yuliang, Deng, Xiao, Liu, Tao, Zeng, Fangfang, Ye, Pengpeng, He, Guanhao, Zhu, Qijiong, Jin, Ye, Chen, Sujuan, Ji, Cuirong, Lin, Ziqiang, Jing, Fengrui, Duan, Leilei, Wang, Yuan, Ma, Wenjun
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 631/158/1469; 704/106/694/2739/2807; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Atmospheric Sciences; Climate change; Climate Change/Climate Change Impacts; Climatology; Daytime; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Health risks; Injuries; Mortality; Night; Nighttime; Risk; Temperature
• ISSN: 2397-3722; 2397-3722
• DOI: 10.1038/s41612-024-00825-9

The night-time temperature-related injury risks and burdens were unclear. Using 11,512,467 non-fatal injury cases in 243 surveillance hospitals across China from 2006-2021, we estimated the associations between daytime or night-time temperature and injury by a time-stratified case-crossover study, and compared their injury burden during 1990s–2010s. We found the excess risk (ER) for per 1°C rise in night-time temperature (ER = 1.21%, 95%CI:1.03%,1.39%) was greater than that in daytime (ER = 0.86%, 95%CI:0.72%,1.00%). Compared with the 1980s, the attributable fractions (AFs) for daytime and night-time temperature change during the 1990s–2010s were 0.59% (95%eCI:0.54%,0.67%) and 0.73% (95%eCI:0.69%,0.77%), respectively. Spatially, the higher AFs of night-time temperature were more widely distributed than daytime temperature. The non-fatal injury risk attributed to night-time temperature was stronger than daytime temperature, and increased night-time temperatures posed a heavier injury burden compared with daytime temperature in China. Our findings indicate that high night-time temperature is an important injury risk in the context of climate change.