An American study reports that high temperatures increase the likelihood of mental health deterioration.
American researchers are interested in the association between temperature and the mental health of their citizens. They compared mental health data for more than three million Americans between 1993 and 2010 based on weather. They realized that the hottest days have a negative effect on mental health. Their results were published in the journal PLOS One.
A self-assessment
The deterioration of mental health is one of the consequences of global warming. Heat stress triggers physiological responses in the human body, from the first signs of skin rash and muscle cramps to an effect on the central nervous system, the circulatory system and broad impacts on many organ systems. High temperatures have been associated with lower birth rates and increased mortality. An increase in temperatures also leads to a deterioration of mental health with a higher number of depression or even suicide.
For this study, the researchers analyzed data, obtained between 1993 and 2010, on three million Americans who had to answer the question each month: “Thinking about your mental health, which includes stress, depression and emotional issues, on how many days in the past 30 was your mental health poor?” Each person is considered to have self-reported mental health issues if they report one or more days of poor mental health.
Cooler temperatures better for your health
The results showed that the likelihood of reporting mental health problems decreases with cooler days and increases with warmer days. Specifically, one additional day with an average temperature below 0°C leads to a 0.8% reduction in the likelihood of self-reported mental health problems over the past month. While an additional day with an average temperature above 20°C leads to a 0.3% increase in this probability.
The researchers sought to estimate the economic costs of the effect of rising temperature on mental health. For this, they tried to find out how much respondents are willing to pay to maintain mental well-being with rising temperatures. They rated the willingness to pay to avoid an extra hot day over the past month at $2.6 to $4.6 per day.
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