Young and Middle-Aged Medical Aid Recipients Visit Emergency Rooms 30% More Often in Summer and Winter

Pusan National University and Seoul National University Research Team Evaluates Health Impacts of Extreme Temperatures on Medical Aid Recipients
Need for Data-Driven Discussions on Reducing Health Disparities Among Economically Vulnerable Groups and Responding to Climate Change

As the impacts of global warming and the climate crisis are being felt worldwide, a recent study has revealed that, in Korea, the rate of emergency room visits due to extreme summer and winter temperatures is more than 30% higher among young and middle-aged (19?64 years old) medical aid recipients?a vulnerable group?compared to non-recipients. This finding highlights the urgent need for countermeasures.

Medical aid is a public assistance system in which the state guarantees medical care for low-income individuals who are unable to maintain their livelihood or are experiencing financial hardship. Alongside health insurance, it serves as a key social security system for ensuring national healthcare coverage.

Pusan National University (President Choi Jaewon) announced on the 31st that a research team led by Professor Lee Hwanhee of the School of Biomedical Convergence Engineering, College of Information and Biotechnology, has found that, in relation to global warming and the climate crisis, the health risks from exposure to extreme high and low temperatures in summer and winter are about 30% higher among young and middle-aged (19?64 years old) medical aid recipients?a population likely to be vulnerable?compared to non-recipients.

This study, which analyzed emergency room visit data of medical aid recipients in Korea to assess the dual disparities in health risks and costs due to extreme temperatures, was published online on March 27 in the renowned international journal in epidemiology, the International Journal of Epidemiology.

Recently, there has been a global call for action in response to the worsening climate crisis and global warming. Extreme heat in summer and severe cold in winter are known to increase the risk of emergency room visits due to premature death and health deterioration.

In particular, economically vulnerable groups are known to be more susceptible to the effects of extreme temperatures than non-vulnerable groups. However, research on the dual disparities?how these differences are further intensified by factors such as age, gender, disability status, and reasons for emergency visits?has been extremely rare worldwide.

Focusing on this limitation, the research team analyzed the risk of hospitalization via emergency room due to high and low temperature exposure among all medical aid recipients in Korea, using National Health Insurance data from 2010 to 2019.

Economically vulnerable groups tend to have less access to heating and cooling facilities to cope with extreme temperatures, are more likely to work outdoors with greater temperature exposure, and generally have lower access to medical facilities due to financial constraints compared to non-vulnerable groups. However, most previous studies have focused only on whether a group is economically vulnerable, paying attention only to the quantitative differences between vulnerable and non-vulnerable groups, with a lack of research on 'double vulnerability'?that is, which factors make these differences more pronounced. The research team explains that this is the key necessity for their study.

The analysis revealed that, compared to non-recipients, the risk of hospitalization via emergency room due to high temperatures was over 50% higher among medical aid recipients aged 18 or younger, and over 30% higher among those aged 19?64.

The risk of hospitalization via emergency room due to low temperatures among medical aid recipients was about 10% higher for those aged 18 or younger, and about 30% higher for those aged 19?64.

Additionally, the disparity in hospitalization risk due to disability or mental illness between recipients and non-recipients was more than 30% higher for low temperatures and more than 20% higher for high temperatures.

The gap in excess medical costs for hospitalization via emergency room due to high and low temperatures between medical aid recipients and non-recipients was especially pronounced in the 65 and older age group. In particular, for low temperatures, the excess cost for recipients in the 65?84 age group was about twice as high.

Meanwhile, the study suggested that, contrary to the common perception that the elderly are most vulnerable to extreme temperatures, factors such as outdoor and occupational activities, alcohol consumption, and economic vulnerability (poorer working environments, more frequent outdoor labor, and workplace stress due to disparities) among the young and middle-aged (19?64 years old) may further accentuate the risk disparities associated with high and low temperatures.

This study was conducted with Professor Lee Hwanhee of Pusan National University as the corresponding author and Kim Ahyoung, a doctoral student at Seoul National University Graduate School of Public Health, as the first author. The research was a joint effort between Professor Lee Hwanhee's team at Pusan National University and Professor Kim Ho's team at Seoul National University Graduate School of Public Health, utilizing National Health Insurance claims data. The study was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea's Global Basic Research Laboratory and the Korea Environmental Industry and Technology Institute.

The results of this analysis indicate that, in future national-level responses to the climate crisis, it will be necessary to consider economically vulnerable groups with greater precision. It is expected to serve as important scientific evidence for establishing more inclusive and equitable climate crisis response policies both domestically and internationally.

Lee Hwanhee, Professor of Biomedical Convergence Engineering at Pusan National University, stated, "The health impacts of climate change disproportionately affect the population, and tailored response policies are needed to address these imbalances. I hope that, based on the results of this study, there will be active discussions on data-driven climate change response policies to alleviate economic vulnerability and disparities."

Professor Lee Hwanhee of Pusan National University.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.