Study: Hospital Admissions for Cardiovascular Disease Increase After Snowfall

A recent study found that hospital admissions for cardiovascular disease and cold-related ailments rose during and after snowfall.

“To our knowledge, this is the first study in which the time course of hospitalizations during and immediately after snowfall days has been examined,” the researchers wrote.
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Data from a total of 433,037 admissions were gathered from the 4 largest hospitals in Boston, Massachusetts during the winters of 2010-2015. Researchers used distributed lag regression models to estimate the percentage increase in hospitalizations for cardiovascular and cold-related diseases, falls, and injuries on the day of and for 6 days after snowfall. Estimations for admissions were stratified based on the amount of snow, with .05-5.0 inches defined as low, 5.1-10 inches defined as moderate, and over 10 inches defined as high snowfall.

Their results showed that cardiovascular disease admissions decreased 32% on high snowfall days but increased by 23% two days after snowfall.

Cold-related admissions on high snowfall days increased by 3.7%, and remained high for 5 days after snowfall.

In the 6 days after moderate snowfall, fall admissions increased, on average, by 18%.

“These findings can be translated into interventions that prevent hospitalizations and protect public health during harsh winter conditions,” the researchers concluded.

—Melissa Weiss

Reference:

Bobb, JF, Ho KKL, Yeh RW, et al. Time-course of cause-specific hospital admissions during snowstorms: an analysis of electronic medical records from major hospitals in Boston, Massachusetts [published January 30, 2017]. American Journal of Epidemiology. doi:10.1093/aje/kww219.