The 'cityClimateHealth' R package makes it easy to estimate any acute health outcome (such as emergency department visits), that are related to a weather exposure (such as extreme heat) by applying state-of-the-art methodology into an easy-to-use format that runs quickly on a user's laptop without the need to share the data externally.
This tool, developed by a research team from Boston University's Center for Climate and Health and the CATCH project, simplifies the process for estimating detailed and specific health impacts from weather exposures like extreme heat across subgroups, such as demographics like age.
Familiarity with R, the ability to manage sensitive health data, and background knowledge regarding the calculations of relative risk and attributable numbers will be essential for using the tool to its full potential.
Anyone with R can test this tool through a series of vignettes on the cityClimateHealth site. Anyone with health data (for example: departments of health or researchers) can work through their own location specific case study with their own exposure and outcome data.
In order to run this tool, you will need time-series data on your daily weather exposure (ex: daily temperatures), as well as time-series data of your health outcome of interest (also measured daily). Although the examples below use daily maximum temperature and daily aggregated Emergency Department visits counts, other daily exposures and outcomes are easy to implement (e.g., daily mortality).
The 'cityClimateHealth' R package takes these inputs and provides the user with relative risks of your health outcome of interest due to the weather exposure of interest (in our example: emergency department visits due to increasing heat) across different demographics, such as age, as well as an estimate of the number of that acute health impact that the user can attribute to the weather exposure for the location of the data and the demographics the user provided. This allows for understanding of where and who are at greatest risk from weather exposures like extreme heat, informing targeted interventions at the local level.
For more details on how to use this tool, and to get started, click the button below!
The cityClimateHealth tool was used in collaboration with the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) Lower Mystic Cool Communications Project, which aimed to build heat resilience in the Lower Mystic communities of Chelsea, Everett, Malden, Revere, and Winthrop with local data and a customized heat communication tool kit. An analysis of the 5 communities revealed disparities in health outcomes across key demographic groups and will aid in future communication and interventions. Figure 1 (below) shows the annual heat-attributable all-cause ED visit number (red) and rates per capita (blue) among the populations of Boston, Chelsea Everett, Malden, Revere, and Winthrop. In this example, the difference in rates across areas can help municipal leaders understand how their health outcomes compare to their neighbors and make key resource decisions based on the size of the impact in their municipalities. One key take away here is that municipalities like Chelsea and Everett, despite their smaller populations, have similar rates compared to urban centers like Boston. You can learn more about the project here. The full analysis can be found here.
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