A Socio-spatial Model of the Risk of Hospitalization from Vulnerability to High Temperatures

Urban heat islands and climate change create increasingly hot environments that pose a threat to the health of the public in urban areas throughout the planet. In Maricopa County, Arizona, --- the hottest metropolitan area in the United States---we have previously shown that the effects of heat on mortality are greater in the social and built environments of low-income and communities of color (predominantly Hispanic/Latinx and Black neighborhoods).

In this analysis of morbidity data from Maricopa County, we examined the relationship between heat-related hospitalization and summertime daily maximum air temperatures in groups defined at the census block group level as being at high, medium, or low vulnerability based on a Heat Vulnerability Index that was derived from socio-economic and built-environment data.

For all three categories of census block group heat vulnerability, we identified 26°C as the daily maximum air temperature threshold beyond which heat-related hospitalization risk increased rapidly with each 1 °C increase in temperature. Compared to this baseline temperature, the relative risk of hospitalization was greatest in the high vulnerability census block groups and least in the low vulnerability census block groups with intermediate increases in the medium vulnerability census block groups. Specifically, with 26°C as the referent, the relative risks of heat-related hospitalization increased from 0.97 at 27°C to 15.71 at 46°C in the low vulnerability group, from 1.03 at 27°C to 53.97 at 46°C in the medium vulnerability group, and from 1.09 at 27°C to 162.46 at 46°C in the high vulnerability group.

Our research helps identify areas with high heat population sensitivity and exposure that can be targeted for adaptation with policies and investments, which include, for example, improving public health safety nets and outcomes, access to affordable energy-efficient housing and health care, energy justice, and modifications to cool the urban built environment. Our hospitalization risk estimates can be incorporated into quantitative risk assessments of heat-related morbidity in Maricopa County.