{"id":10530,"date":"2015-05-04T11:02:16","date_gmt":"2015-05-04T16:02:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/college.unc.edu\/?p=10530"},"modified":"2024-07-02T16:07:27","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T16:07:27","slug":"beattheheat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=10530","title":{"rendered":"Doctoral student’s research is helping people beat the heat"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Maggie<\/a>
Maggie Kovach<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Every summer, thousands of North Carolinians rush to emergency departments with cramping, fainting, and severe dehydration caused by heat illnesses. To combat the number of people getting sick, UNC<\/span> researchers are improving\u00a0advice on how to cope with\u00a0heat.<\/p>\n

Research by Maggie Kovach, a geography PhD student at UNC<\/span>, and her advisor Charles Konrad, found that North Carolina\u2019s heat-illness patterns do not fit with the national understanding of heat illnesses, or recommendations on how to avoid getting\u00a0sick.<\/p>\n

Current National Weather Service advisories suggest high heat is more dangerous to the young and elderly in cities at extremely high temperatures. Kovach says what she found in North Carolina is different, and it is changing the way we think about heat\u00a0illnesses.<\/p>\n

In North Carolina, she says that middle-aged, rural people are at higher risk for getting sick at lower\u00a0temperatures.<\/p>\n

In response to her groundbreaking findings, Kovach is in the process of developing a website that will estimate the number of heat-related emergency department visits in North Carolina based on forecasted temperatures. This tool will give local public health officials the data they need to issue accurate advice on how to stay safe in the\u00a0heat.<\/p>\n

Heat illnesses include heat syncope, or fainting due to overheating, and heatstroke, when body temperature goes to dangerously high levels. Other illnesses, like diabetes, can also be made worse by high body\u00a0temperatures.<\/p>\n

Kovach says most heat-illness research comes from large, northern cities like Chicago that are not relevant to North Carolina\u2019s\u00a0geography.<\/p>\n

\u201cVulnerability changes depending on location,\u201d she says. \u201cYou need to look at a specific place to really understand what\u2019s going\u00a0on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because of the urban heat island effect<\/a>, heat advisories warn that people living in cities are at higher risk for heat illnesses. In North Carolina, however, Kovach\u2019s research shows that rural locations tend to have more cases of heat-related\u00a0illnesses.<\/p>\n

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Her research using data from North Carolina revealed that not only are rural communities at far more risk for heat-illnesses, but that unlikely demographics are at high risk\u00a0too.<\/p>\n

The National Weather Service<\/a> says that the elderly and infants are at higher risk for heat-illnesses. However, Kovach discovered that people in the 18 to 44 age range were the ones experiencing heat illness in North\u00a0Carolina.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn NC<\/span>, it\u2019s not the elderly or the young,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s people who work outside, it\u2019s people who are engaging in strenuous\u00a0activities.\u201d<\/p>\n

These were not the only abnormalities she found in North Carolina. Using temperature data from the respective dates, she found that after the temperature crossed 100 degrees, the number of heat-related emergency department visits\u00a0declined.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I first saw the decline,\u201d she says, \u201cI thought there was a problem with my program, and I spent a whole week going through the code trying to figure out where I went\u00a0wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kovach thinks this trend may be because North Carolinians take extra precautions in extremely high temperatures, but not in slightly lower\u00a0temperatures.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is really unusual,\u201d she says, \u201cbecause if you look at previous literature, every other study shows increases. North Carolina is different in that we have decline at the highest\u00a0temperatures.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kovach discovered the groundbreaking trends after she charted nearly 14,000 heat illnesses cases between 2007 and 2012 from NC<\/span> DETECT<\/span>, an NC<\/span> program that provides data on hospital emergency department visits from across the\u00a0state.<\/p>\n

Kovach says it would be difficult to recreate this research in another state, as getting hands on a comprehensive dataset like NC<\/span> DETECT<\/span>\u2019s is almost impossible anywhere\u00a0else.<\/p>\n

For Kovach, NC<\/span> DETECT<\/span> has allowed her to take her research to the next\u00a0level.<\/p>\n

She is creating a website for local public health officials that will predict how many heat-related illnesses North Carolina counties should expect. This summer, Kovach will be having conversations with public health officials about the\u00a0tool.<\/p>\n

So far, the program has been developed for Bladen County. Kovach\u2019s goal is to one day predict heat illness in all counties based on the\u00a0weather.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey can click on it and look at the temperatures for the next three or four days,\u201d Kovach says, \u201cand see if there\u2019s going to be an increase in heat illness or a decrease in heat\u00a0illness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kovach says this knowledge is important because heat illness can be easily avoided by staying hydrated and cooling down often. There has already been a discussion about changing the National Weather Service\u2019s heat advisories to target younger, more active individuals. In North Carolina, heat advisories could be sent out at lower temperatures more often in rural\u00a0locations.<\/p>\n

In the future, Kovach is interested in focusing her research on migrant workers, who have a higher risk of dying from prolonged heat exposure. She hopes to secure funding for thermocons, small devices people can wear all day to collect their body temperature data.<\/p>\n

Migrant workers in fields, she says, are in particular danger because crop fields tend to have their own hotter microclimate. Some workers also sleep in hot barracks at night. Kovach says this continuous heat exposure can cause problems the following\u00a0day.<\/p>\n

In the fall, Kovach will continue research on climatic patterns on human health at Appalachian State University, where she will be a faculty member. There, she hopes to continue studying heat illnesses, as well as water-borne diseases and vector-borne diseases like Lyme\u00a0disease.<\/p>\n

Kovach\u2019s research has reshaped current thought about heat and health, and she says she enjoys using geography to understand topics like heat\u00a0illness.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like looking at all the different players,\u201d she says. \u201cI like looking at things at different scales\u2014a more realistic interpretation of the\u00a0world.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Maggie Kovach is a geography PhD candidate in the College of Arts and Sciences. She is a UNC<\/span> Graduate School Impact Award winner and a recipient of an EPA<\/span> STAR<\/span> grant. She will be a faculty member at Appalachian State University in the\u00a0fall.<\/em><\/div>\n
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Charles Konrad is a professor in the UNC<\/span> Geography Department in the College of Arts and\u00a0Sciences.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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By Ashita Gona, Endeavors magazine<\/em><\/a><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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NC<\/span>\u00a0DETECT<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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  • The North Carolina Disease Event Tracking and Epidemiological Tool is housed here at UNC<\/span> and collects data from 122 NC<\/span>\u00a0hospitals.<\/li>\n
  • The program is managed by the UNC<\/span> Department of Emergency Medicine and the NC<\/span> Department of\u00a0Public\u00a0Health.<\/li>\n
  • NC<\/span> DETECT<\/span> was created to protect against bioterrorism, but also serves rich dataset\u00a0for\u00a0researchers.<\/li>\n
  • The dataset includes the age, gender, diagnostic codes, zip code, and insurance information of patients, as well as the date and time of\u00a0their\u00a0visit.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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    As summer approaches, geography doctoral student Maggie Kovach is finding ways for North Carolinians to avoid getting sick from the sun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":10538,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-natural-sciences-mathematics","category-social-sciences"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10530"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47255,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10530\/revisions\/47255"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}