Temperature-Defined Heat-Alert-Threshold Days and Acute Myocardial Infarction Admissions and Mortality: A Nationwide Hungarian Registry-Based Cohort Study

作者：Csaba Bálint, A. Al-Murshedi, A. Jaber, Annamária Pakai, Zsófia Verzár · 发表于：International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · 年份：2026 · DOI：10.3390/ijerph23081010 · 研究领域：Medicine

Highlights Public health relevance—How does this work relate to a public health issue? Heat waves and extreme heat events, increasingly frequent due to climate change, are established triggers for acute cardiovascular events, including myocardial infarction (AMI). Official heat alerts issued by public health authorities represent real-world policy interventions aimed at mitigating population-level risks during periods of elevated temperature extremes. In Hungary, temperature-defined heat-alert-threshold days represent the operational criterion used to trigger the national heat-health action plan. Public health significance—Why is this work of significance to public health? This nationwide Hungarian study found that heat-alert-threshold days were associated with fewer recorded AMI admissions during summer (aIRR 0.93). This unexpected finding should not be interpreted as evidence of a protective effect of heat exposure and may reflect multiple factors, including under-ascertainment of out-of-hospital events and residual confounding. Heat-alert-threshold exposure was not associated with long-term post-AMI mortality among hospitalized patients (adjusted hazard ratio 0.96). This finding should not be interpreted as evidence that heat exposure has no adverse cardiovascular consequences at the population level. Public health implications—What are the key implications or messages for practitioners, policy makers and/or researchers in public health? The present findings support contin...