Health risks from non-optimal temperatures in different populations and regions in China: Tailored intervention strategies are needed

Identifying temperature-sensitive diseases, vulnerable populations and attributable disease burden is crucial for the development and implementation of tailored climate change adaptation strategies in the context of climate change, especially through both mortality and morbidity analysis by using the data from same regions and populations. We re-analyzed and outlined the whole picture of the impacts of extreme temperatures on both mortality and morbidity among various populations and regions, based on the researches from a well-planned national project of Scientific Survey of Regional Meteorological Sensitive Diseases (SRMSD) with consistent methodology in China. The twenty-four representative regions of the SRMSD project cover all eleven geographical meteorological divisions in the country, including urban and rural areas. In addition to circulatory and respiratory diseases, we found that neurological diseases, injuries, digestive diseases, endocrine diseases, genitourinary diseases, skin and subcutaneous tissue diseases were sensitive to extreme heat, while digestive diseases were sensitive to extreme cold. The extreme temperature-sensitive diseases and the attributable disease burden varied by region. Females and the elderly people (65 years old and above) were more vulnerable to extreme heat when using mortality as a health outcome, whereas males and the young and middle-aged adults were more vulnerable to morbidity risk from heat. Our findings provide important scientific evidence for regional distribution of temperature-sensitive diseases and identification of vulnerable populations in China. It provides evidence and implications of developing regional heat/cold-exposure intervention policies, especially for hospital emergency departments and ambulance services during hot seasons.