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Heat-related mortality in U.S. state and private prisons: A case-crossover analysis

Rising temperatures and heatwaves increase mortality. Many of the subpopulations most vulnerable to heat-related mortality are in prisons, facilities that may exacerbate temperature exposures. Yet, there is scare literature on the impacts of heat among incarcerated populations. We analyzed data on m...

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Autores principales: Skarha, Julianne, Spangler, Keith, Dosa, David, Rich, Josiah D., Savitz, David A., Zanobetti, Antonella
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9976996/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36857338
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0281389
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author Skarha, Julianne
Spangler, Keith
Dosa, David
Rich, Josiah D.
Savitz, David A.
Zanobetti, Antonella
author_facet Skarha, Julianne
Spangler, Keith
Dosa, David
Rich, Josiah D.
Savitz, David A.
Zanobetti, Antonella
author_sort Skarha, Julianne
collection PubMed
description Rising temperatures and heatwaves increase mortality. Many of the subpopulations most vulnerable to heat-related mortality are in prisons, facilities that may exacerbate temperature exposures. Yet, there is scare literature on the impacts of heat among incarcerated populations. We analyzed data on mortality in U.S. state and private prisons from 2001–2019 linked to daily maximum temperature data for the months of June, July, and August. Using a case-crossover approach and distributed lag models, we estimated the association of increasing temperatures with total mortality, heart disease-related mortality, and suicides. We also examined the association with extreme heat and heatwaves (days above the 90th percentile for the prison location) and assessed effect modification by personal, facility, and regional characteristics. There were 12,836 deaths during summer months. The majority were male (96%) and housed in a state-operated prison (97%). A 10°F increase was associated with a 5.2% (95% CI: 1.5%, 9.0%) increase in total mortality and a 6.7% (95% CI: -0.6%, 14.0%) increase in heart disease mortality. The association between temperature and suicides was delayed, peaking around lag 3 (exposure at three days prior death). Two- and three-day heatwaves were associated with increased total mortality of 5.5% (95% CI: 0.3%, 10.9%) and 7.4% (95% CI: 1.6%, 13.5%), respectively. The cumulative effect (lags 1–3) of an extreme heat day was associated with a 22.8% (95% CI: 3.3%, 46.0%) increase in suicides. We found the greatest increase in mortality among people ≥ 65 years old, incarcerated less than one year, held in the Northeast region, and in urban or rural counties. These findings suggest that warm temperatures are associated with increased mortality in prisons, yet this vulnerable population’s risk has largely been overlooked.
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spelling pubmed-99769962023-03-02 Heat-related mortality in U.S. state and private prisons: A case-crossover analysis Skarha, Julianne Spangler, Keith Dosa, David Rich, Josiah D. Savitz, David A. Zanobetti, Antonella PLoS One Research Article Rising temperatures and heatwaves increase mortality. Many of the subpopulations most vulnerable to heat-related mortality are in prisons, facilities that may exacerbate temperature exposures. Yet, there is scare literature on the impacts of heat among incarcerated populations. We analyzed data on mortality in U.S. state and private prisons from 2001–2019 linked to daily maximum temperature data for the months of June, July, and August. Using a case-crossover approach and distributed lag models, we estimated the association of increasing temperatures with total mortality, heart disease-related mortality, and suicides. We also examined the association with extreme heat and heatwaves (days above the 90th percentile for the prison location) and assessed effect modification by personal, facility, and regional characteristics. There were 12,836 deaths during summer months. The majority were male (96%) and housed in a state-operated prison (97%). A 10°F increase was associated with a 5.2% (95% CI: 1.5%, 9.0%) increase in total mortality and a 6.7% (95% CI: -0.6%, 14.0%) increase in heart disease mortality. The association between temperature and suicides was delayed, peaking around lag 3 (exposure at three days prior death). Two- and three-day heatwaves were associated with increased total mortality of 5.5% (95% CI: 0.3%, 10.9%) and 7.4% (95% CI: 1.6%, 13.5%), respectively. The cumulative effect (lags 1–3) of an extreme heat day was associated with a 22.8% (95% CI: 3.3%, 46.0%) increase in suicides. We found the greatest increase in mortality among people ≥ 65 years old, incarcerated less than one year, held in the Northeast region, and in urban or rural counties. These findings suggest that warm temperatures are associated with increased mortality in prisons, yet this vulnerable population’s risk has largely been overlooked. Public Library of Science 2023-03-01 /pmc/articles/PMC9976996/ /pubmed/36857338 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0281389 Text en © 2023 Skarha et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Skarha, Julianne
Spangler, Keith
Dosa, David
Rich, Josiah D.
Savitz, David A.
Zanobetti, Antonella
Heat-related mortality in U.S. state and private prisons: A case-crossover analysis
title Heat-related mortality in U.S. state and private prisons: A case-crossover analysis
title_full Heat-related mortality in U.S. state and private prisons: A case-crossover analysis
title_fullStr Heat-related mortality in U.S. state and private prisons: A case-crossover analysis
title_full_unstemmed Heat-related mortality in U.S. state and private prisons: A case-crossover analysis
title_short Heat-related mortality in U.S. state and private prisons: A case-crossover analysis
title_sort heat-related mortality in u.s. state and private prisons: a case-crossover analysis
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9976996/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36857338
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0281389
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