The utilisation of ambulance data to quantify the impact of temperature and air pollution on human health in urban environments.

这项研究将研究两个环境因素，空气污染和温度，如何影响城市环境中的人类健康，通过救护车呼叫来衡量。已经进行了大量的研究来了解空气污染，温度和健康之间的关系，但这主要集中在医院数据，全科医生（GP）数据和电话健康服务，如NHS 111.Ambulance数据是一个未充分利用的资源，用于研究环境因素对人类健康的影响，本研究旨在改变。救护车数据捕获了一组不同的人（通常比GP数据更严重，比医院入院数据更严重，这通常是有计划的）。在救护车数据中收集的健康事件中，大约有一半没有记录在任何其他数据集中，因为人们得到了护理人员的治疗，并且没有继续获得任何其他服务。最后，救护车数据的最大优势之一是，收集的地理数据是事情发生的地方，不像所有其他健康数据集，记录的位置是人的居住地址。这可能很重要，例如，如果城市中心的温度升高（因为建筑区的大量混凝土和沥青会加剧温度），导致中暑晕倒的人数增加。查看医院数据可能不会发现这个问题。虽然人们可能会在市中心受到影响（例如，因为这是他们工作和/或购物的地方），但他们可能住在城市的各个地方，因此信号被稀释并传播到大面积。然而，救护车数据将突出显示这组数据，因为无论人们碰巧住在哪里，救护车都将被呼叫到市中心，如果这是人们经历症状的地方，这是记录的邮政编码。救护车数据也可以在寒冷天气中有效地发现问题，例如，你可以收集有关人们在结冰或空气污染事件时摔倒的数据，例如，如果工厂火灾释放出有毒烟雾，在附近行走的人暴露在有毒烟雾中，历史上的研究都是孤立地研究空气污染和温度，但这项研究也将研究空气污染和温度之间的关系。两个.这一点很重要，因为一个因素会影响另一个因素，较高的温度会影响臭氧等污染物的浓度。此外，更容易暴露在极端温度下的人也更容易暴露在空气污染中（比如那些在户外呆了很多时间的人，比如建筑工人）。由于环境因素和健康之间的关系会在英国不同的气候中发生变化，这项研究将在三个城市进行，这些城市从南到北大致位于一条线上--伦敦，伯明翰和格拉斯哥。对一系列地点的模式进行检查将增加研究结果对英国其他城市的适用性。计量办公室还制作了英国气候预测，预测了2020年，2050年和2080年的未来气温。这些预测将用于预测救护车呼叫数字在未来可能发生的变化，以便我们更好地了解气候变化导致的未来疾病负担。这些发现可以用于监测人口健康，卫生署向易受感染的长期病患者提供忠告（例如，卫生组织应提供什么样的温度或空气人口浓度警告）和警告阈值（例如，向公众发出的热量健康警报）。这些干预措施可以改变人们的行为，从而降低他们的暴露程度，减轻疾病负担。

This research will examine how two environmental factors, air pollution and temperature, affect human health in urban environments as measured by ambulance call outs. A substantial amount of research has been undertaken to understand the relationship between air pollution, temperature and health but this has focused on hospital data, general practice (GP) data and calls to telephone health services such as NHS 111.Ambulance data is an underutilised resource for studying the impact of environmental factors on human health, which this research aims to change. Ambulance data captures a different set of people (generally with more serious conditions than GP data and more acute than the hospital admissions data, which is often planned). Approximately half of the health events picked up in ambulance data do not get recorded in any other dataset as people get treated by the paramedic and do not go on to access any other services. Finally, one of the biggest advantages of ambulance data is that the geographical data collected is where something happened, unlike all other health datasets where the location recorded is the person's residential address. This can be important, for example, if increased temperatures in the centre of a city (as temperatures can be exacerbated by large amounts of concrete and asphalt in built up areas) cause increased rates of people fainting from heatstroke. Looking at hospital data might not pick up this issue. Although people may be affected in the city centre (for example as that is where they work and/or shop), they could live all over the city so the signal is diluted and spread over a large area. However, ambulance data would highlight this cluster of data as, regardless of where people happen to live, the ambulances will all be called out to the centre of the city if this is where people were experiencing the symptoms and this is the postcode that is recorded. Ambulance data could also prove effective in picking up issues during cold weather, for instance you would collect data on where people fall when it is icy or for air pollution incidents, if for example toxic fumes were being given off by a factory fire and people walking nearby were being exposed.Studies historically have looked at air pollution and temperature in isolation but this study will also be examining the relationship between the two. This is important as one factor can affect the other, with higher temperatures affecting the concentrations of pollutants like ozone. Furthermore, people who are more likely to be exposed to extreme temperatures are also more likely to be exposed to air pollution (such as people who spend a lot of time outdoors, for example builders).As the relationship between environmental factors and health can change across the different climates in the UK, the research will be carried out in three cities situated in a rough line from the south to the north - London, Birmingham and Glasgow. Examining patterns across a range of locations will increase the applicability of the research findings to other cities across the UK.The Metrological Office has also produced UK Climate Projections with projections for future temperatures in 2020, 2050 and 2080. These projections will be used to predict how ambulance call out figures might change in the future so we can better understand the future burden of disease due to climate change.These findings can then be used to inform the surveillance of the health of the population, advice given to susceptible people with chronic conditions (for example what temperatures or air population concentrations warnings should be provided by health organisations) and thresholds for warnings (for instance heat health alerts) given to the general public. These interventions can alter people's behaviour so their exposure is lowered and the burden of disease is decreased.