By Linda Searing January 3, 2023 at 5:41 a.m. EST
Extremely cold weather appears to increase the risk of dying from heart failure by 37 percent, according to international research published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation.
Extremely hot days were found to be less deadly, but they still increased the heart failure mortality risk by 12 percent.
To examine what effect extreme temperatures might have on heart diseases, the researchers analyzed data from more than 32 million cardiovascular deaths in 567 cities in 27 countries on five continents from 1979 to 2019, comparing deaths on days with extreme temperatures with those on days with moderate temperatures.
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States and worldwide, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization. The researchers found that more deaths with a cardiovascular cause occurred on very cold and very hot days — with temperatures comparable to below 20 degrees Fahrenheit or above 86 degrees in Baltimore, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center, which participated in the research.
Cardiovascular causes of death included stroke, arrhythmia (irregular heart beat), ischemic heart disease (from narrowed heart arteries) and heart failure (when the heart cannot pump needed amounts of blood). Risk of death was found to be highest among people with heart failure.
Overall, for every 1,000 deaths with a cardiovascular cause, very cold days accounted for about nine additional deaths and very hot days accounted for about two additional deaths, but for those with heart failure, there were some 13 additional deaths on extremely cold days and about three added deaths on extremely hot days.
Noting that “climate change produces both hotter summers and colder winters,” the researchers urged patients, doctors and public health officials to become more aware of the potential health risks of temperature extremes.
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