Short-term impacts of air temperature on hospitalizations for mental disorders in Lisbon

Background: Individuals with mental disorders are often susceptible to the effects of extreme ambient temperatures. The aim of this study is to assess the short-term impacts of daily mean temperature on hospitalizations for mental disorders in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, Portugal.

Methods: To assess the short-term impacts of daily mean temperature on hospitalizations for mental disorders (2008-2014), a quasi-Poisson generalized additive model combined with a distributed lag non-linear model was applied. The model was adjusted for day of the week, air pollution, relative humidity, time and seasonality.

Results: The number of hospital admissions for mental disorder during the study period was 30,139. Hospital admissions increase significantly with high temperatures on day of exposure, at lag 0-1 and at lag 0-2. Women are more vulnerable than men, and there was no difference between the age groups studied.

Conclusions: The exposure to high temperatures should be considered a significant risk factor for mental disorders; therefore, patient management services may need to be strengthened when extreme high temperature alerts are given.