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Assessing health impacts of the December 2013 Ice storm in Ontario, Canada

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Public Health, July 2016
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Title
Assessing health impacts of the December 2013 Ice storm in Ontario, Canada
Published in
BMC Public Health, July 2016
DOI 10.1186/s12889-016-3214-7
Pubmed ID
Authors

Nikhil Rajaram, Karin Hohenadel, Laera Gattoni, Yasmin Khan, Elizabeth Birk-Urovitz, Lennon Li, Brian Schwartz

Abstract

Ice, or freezing rain storms have the potential to affect human health and disrupt normal functioning of a community. The purpose of this study was to assess acute health impacts of an ice storm that occurred in December 2013 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Data on emergency department visits were obtained from the National Ambulatory Care Reporting System. Rates of visits in Toronto during the storm period (December 21, 2013 - January 1, 2014) were compared to rates occurring on the same dates in the previous five years (historical comparison) and compared to those in a major unaffected city, Ottawa, Ontario (geographic comparison). Overall visits and rates for three categories of interest (cardiac conditions, environmental causes and injuries) were assessed. Rate ratios were calculated using Poisson regression with population counts as an offset. Absolute counts of carbon monoxide poisoning were compared descriptively in a sub-analysis. During the 2013 storm period, there were 34 549 visits to EDs in Toronto (12.46 per 1000 population) compared with 10 794 visits in Ottawa (11.55 per 1000 population). When considering year and geography separately, rates of several types of ED visits were higher in the storm year than in previous years in both Toronto and Ottawa. Considering year and geography together, rates in the storm year were higher for overall ED visits (RR: 1.10, 95 % CI: 1.09-1.11) and for visits due to environmental causes (RR: 2.52, 95 % CI: 2.21-2.87) compared to previous years regardless of city. For injuries, visit rates were higher in the storm year in both Toronto and Ottawa, but the increase in Toronto was significantly greater than the increase in Ottawa, indicating a significant interaction between geography and year (RR: 1.23, 95 % CI: 1.16-1.30). This suggests that the main health impact of the 2013 Ice Storm was an increase in ED visits for injuries, while other increases could have been due to severe weather across Ontario at that time. This study is one of the first to use a population-level database and regression modeling of emergency visit codes to identify acute impacts resulting from ice storms.

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Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 67 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 67 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Master 20 30%
Researcher 7 10%
Student > Bachelor 6 9%
Student > Doctoral Student 2 3%
Lecturer 2 3%
Other 6 9%
Unknown 24 36%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 12 18%
Nursing and Health Professions 6 9%
Social Sciences 5 7%
Psychology 3 4%
Environmental Science 3 4%
Other 10 15%
Unknown 28 42%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 1. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 28 July 2016.
All research outputs
#15,380,722
of 22,881,964 outputs
Outputs from BMC Public Health
#11,385
of 14,922 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#226,143
of 354,304 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Public Health
#281
of 343 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 22,881,964 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 22nd percentile – i.e., 22% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 14,922 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 13.9. This one is in the 16th percentile – i.e., 16% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 354,304 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one is in the 27th percentile – i.e., 27% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.
We're also able to compare this research output to 343 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 13th percentile – i.e., 13% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.