Projecting excess emergency department visits and associated costs in Brisbane, Australia, under population growth and climate change scenarios
Toloo, Ghasem (Sam), Hu, Wenbiao, Fitzgerald, Gerry, Aitken, Peter, and Tong, Shilu (2015) Projecting excess emergency department visits and associated costs in Brisbane, Australia, under population growth and climate change scenarios. Scientific Reports, 5. 12860 . pp. 1-9.
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Abstract
The direct and indirect health effects of increasingly warmer temperatures are likely to further burden the already overcrowded hospital emergency departments (EDs). Using current trends and estimates in conjunction with future population growth and climate change scenarios, we show that the increased number of hot days in the future can have a considerable impact on EDs, adding to their workload and costs. The excess number of visits in 2030 is projected to range between 98–336 and 42–127 for younger and older groups, respectively. The excess costs in 2012–13 prices are estimated to range between AU$51,000–184,000 (0–64) and AU$27,000–84,000 (65+). By 2060, these estimates will increase to 229–2300 and 145–1188 at a cost of between AU$120,000–1,200,000 and AU$96,000–786,000 for the respective age groups. Improvements in climate change mitigation and adaptation measures are likely to generate synergistic health co-benefits and reduce the impact on frontline health services.
Item ID: | 43893 |
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Item Type: | Article (Research - C1) |
ISSN: | 2045-2322 |
Additional Information: | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
Funders: | Australian Research Council (ARC), National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC). |
Projects and Grants: | ARC FT140101216, ARC LP882699, NHMRC 553043 |
Date Deposited: | 20 May 2016 03:14 |
FoR Codes: | 11 MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES > 1117 Public Health and Health Services > 111799 Public Health and Health Services not elsewhere classified @ 100% |
SEO Codes: | 92 HEALTH > 9204 Public Health (excl. Specific Population Health) > 920407 Health Protection and/or Disaster Response @ 100% |
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