Case-crossover assessment of the modifying effects of home medication use on acute kidney-related morbidity due to elevated ambient heat exposure in Atlanta, GA, from 2013 to 2019.

Background: Elevated ambient temperatures increase the risk for acute kidney-related morbidity, and medication use may increase vulnerability to heat exposure. This study examines whether medication use, and combination medication use (ie, polypharmacy), modifies the risk for temperature-related volume depletion (VD) and acute kidney injury (AKI).

Methods: This study uses patient-level emergency department (ED) visit data from four Atlanta-area hospitals during the warm season from 2013 to 2019. ED patient-visits who reported a medication were matched with up to five ED patient-visits without the medication. Medications included angiotensin converting enzymes and angiotensin receptor blockers (ACE/ARBs), anti-depressants, anti-convulsants, β-blockers, diuretics, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and statins. A case-crossover framework is used to estimate associations between daily maximum temperature, medication use and VD/AKI ED visits.

Results: There were 14 635 VD and 18 716 AKI ED visits in this study. For a change in ambient temperature (lags 0-2) from the 50 to 95 percentiles, patients using antidepressants had a higher risk for AKI (OR 1.28, 95% CI 1.08 to 1.52) compared with antidepressant nonusers (1.03, 95% CI 0.95 to 1.12). Polypharmacy analysis indicated that patients taking statins with ACE/ARBs were at an elevated risk for AKI (OR 1.38, 95% CI 1.02 to 1.86) relative to all other groups. This includes patients taking only an ACE/ARB (OR 1.00, 95% CI 0.82 to 1.21), only a statin (OR 1.10, 95% CI 0.90 to 1.33) or neither medication (OR 1.07, 95% CI 0.93 to 1.23).

Conclusion: Results show that both single and combined medication use are associated with elevated risk for VD and AKI during periods of elevated ambient temperature.