India, July 7 -- Extreme heat during warmer months can double the risk of children and young adults being admitted to hospital for serious mental health conditions, according to a new study.
To reach this conclusion, researchers from the University of Sydney analyzed more than 720,000 hospital admissions in New South Wales between 2001 and 2022 involving people aged 24 and younger. They found that when daily temperatures reached the hottest 1% ever recorded for that time of year, the risk of mental health-related hospital admissions doubled during the warmer months (October to March) and tripled during the cooler months.
The study, published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, also predicts that heat...