| Application: | 26284, Temperatures and health - Using accelerometer data to understand experienced temperatures and their relationship to sleep, mental and physical health |
| Title: | Observational evidence of the seasonal and demographic variation in experienced temperature from 77 743 UK Biobank participants |
| Size: | 388.4 MB |
| Archived: | 4 Nov 2021 |
| Stability: | Complete |
| Personal: | Contains individual-level data |
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Notes
BackgroundExposure to cold is known to be associated with severe health impacts. The primary epidemiological evidence for this is the seasonal variation in mortality. However, there is a paucity of directly measured data for personal cold temperature exposure. This paper develops the concept of experienced temperature, and reports how it varies with season, demographics and housing factors.
Methods
This study uses data from 77 743 UK Biobank participants. A novel method to directly measure participant s exposure to low temperatures using a thermistor in a wrist-worn activity monitor is described. These readings are combined with demographic and housing factor variables in a multiple regression model to understand underlying relationships.
Results
The study reveals a significant difference in experienced temperature of ~1.8 C between the periods of coldest and hottest external temperature. A number of demographic differences were also observed - such as people of Chinese ethnic background experiencing 0.65 C lower temperatures than other groups.
Conclusions
This paper presents primary evidence for a seasonal variation in experienced temperature. This variation likely contributes to cold related mortality and morbidity. It is hypothesized that this relationship would be less strong in countries which suffer fewer impacts of cold winter temperatures.
Application 26284
Temperatures and health - Using accelerometer data to understand experienced temperatures and their relationship to sleep, mental and physical health
Air temperatures can pose significant health risks. Various studies have assessed typical temperatures inside homes at fixed spatial locations; however, temperatures experienced by people have received little attention even though they are the ones that pose the health risks. Biobank provides a unique resource through the temperature data recorded incidentally by the accelerometer to look at these. Research questions: 1. What are typical and extreme temperatures experienced by participants and how do these relate to Public Health England guidelines? 2. Are experienced temperatures correlated with sleep/mental/physical health outcomes? 3. Are experienced temperatures correlated with sociodemographic and building characteristics? Experienced emperatures are an import factor related to health outcomes, as e.g. evidenced by higher winter deaths in the UK than other European countries which is linked to poor building stock. Showing the prevalene of extreme experienced temperatures will show the magnitude of the problem. Identification of who is most vulnerable to extreme temperatures will allow then targeting those to ensure less exposure to hazardous conditions. The research consists of analyzing the temperature data, light data, and accelerometer data. As a first step, the recordings will be downsampled. We will then use statistical analysis (descriptive, correlation, regression, multi-level modelling) to show links between temperatures and sleep, mental / physical health and buildings. The subset for whom accelerometry data is available.
| Lead investigator: | Dr Gesche Huebner |
| Lead institution: | University College London |
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