Investigating the Effect of Different Environmental and Socioeconomic Factors on Heat-Related Illness (HRI) in Nebraska, USA

Heatwaves are prolonged periods of scorching weather that can result in many health complications and can be especially detrimental in urban settings where the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect exacerbates temperatures. Heatwaves have been linked to a broad spectrum of health issues, ranging from mild conditions like heat exhaustion and cramps to severe outcomes such as heatstroke, which can be fatal. Vulnerable groups, including the elderly, infants, the economically disadvantaged, and those with pre-existing health conditions, are at a particularly elevated risk during heatwaves. While the health effects of heatwave are well known, the pathways to these outcomes are complicated and are affected by many different personal health, socioeconomic, and environmental factors. Therefore, different socioeconomic and environmental variables are being used in numerous studies to distinguish the potentially vulnerable groups in different urban settings. While such variables can help in distinguishing the vulnerable communities, they may not sufficiently distinguish the groups that experience heat related illnesses. To date, our team has developed a census Tract level Heat Vulnerability Index (HVI) mapping tool for Nebraska with distinctions for different urbanization levels. Such mapping can be helpful for different future adaptation and mitigation plans and has been used for different urban areas worldwide. With our recent access to the Health-Related Illness (HRI) data of hospital discharges in Nebraska -made possible through the Nebraska Environmental Public Health Tracking funding- we are investigating the affected groups. While our previous study can help in mitigation and adaptation strategies and be used chiefly for urban planning and prevention plans for inherently vulnerable groups, this new study can be used to target the groups that have been affected due to their specific activities or individual situations and to plan for educating them, and to distinguish the related environmental factors. Our dataset contains HRI data from 2013 to 2023 for May to September. Our initial exploratory analysis for the week of August 19^th, 2023, shows that the highest number of patients discharged regarding heat problems are among ages 20 to 29 (23%), mostly men (64%), and have been chiefly recognized as work-related or outdoor activity (69%). We are in the process of attaining and preparing a dataset for the previous years. We plan to first distinguish spatial and temporal trends in different groupings in these ten years. Using the residency patients' zip codes will help distinguish potential clustered areas with high numbers of patients and their potential change in time. It will then guide us to distinguish the unforeseen environmental and/or socioeconomic vulnerabilities that can help create an epidemiologic model to distinguish the effects of such variables in enhancing the risk of Heat-related illnesses. The results of this study can further help The Nebraska Environmental Public Health Tracking program in its goal to provide insightful information for decision-making on environmental health-related issues.