A Systematic Review of Heat Health Warning Systems: Enhancing the Framework Towards Effective Health Outcomes
Purpose of Review
Heat Health Warning Systems (HHWS) reduce heat-related morbidity and mortality. We reviewed scientific studies on HHWS that use meteorological variables, local climate-epidemiological evidence, personalization, and built environment factors to determine heat stress thresholds. We identified key factors to enhance their precision and effectiveness.
Recent Findings
We categorized the findings into three groups. First, most HHWS rely on temperature-mortality relationships. Second, future HHWS should integrate climate-epidemiology data, including cause-specific mortality and morbidity. Third, improvements can be made by incorporating local, built environment, and personalized factors. Our findings highlight a diverse range of factors that can influence the nature of heat warnings and contribute to improving HHWS.
Summary
Temperature based HHWS are predominantly used across the world while other meteorological variables that include humidity and take actual health impact outcomes based on heat stress indices should be included for better protection. The precision of HHWS can be improved by tapping advancements in digital technologies to develop more targeted HHWS without the need for authorities to issue warnings, and by considering built environment, and personalized factors. The effectiveness of HHWS can be further improved by considering local climate-epidemiological evidence including morbidity and actual health outcomes.
This article was originally published in Current Environmental Health Reports journal.