Temperature and Mental Health: Evidence from Helpline Calls
This paper studies the short-term effects of ambient temperature on mental health using data on nearly half a million helpline calls in Germany. Leveraging location-based routing of helpline calls and random day-to-day weather fluctuations, I find a negative effect of temperature extremes on mental health as revealed by an increase in the demand for telephone counseling services. On days with an average temperature above 25{\deg}C (77{\deg}F) and below 0{\deg}C (32{\deg}F), call volume is 3.4 and 5.1 percent higher, respectively, than on mid-temperature days. Mechanism analysis reveals pronounced adverse effects of cold temperatures on social and psychological well-being and of hot temperatures on psychological well-being and violence. More broadly, the findings of this work contribute to our understanding of how changing climatic conditions will affect population mental health and associated social costs in the near future.
Code (0)
등록된 구현이 없습니다.
Similar Papers 제목 키워드 기반
Feasibility of Mental Health Triage Call Priority Prediction Using Machine Learning
Ensuring accurate call prioritisation is essential for optimising the efficiency and responsiveness of mental health helplines. Currently, call operators rely entirely on the caller's statements to determine the priority…
Understanding Postpartum Parents' Experiences via Two Digital Platforms
Digital platforms, including online forums and helplines, have emerged as avenues of support for caregivers suffering from postpartum mental health distress. Understanding support seekers' experiences as shared on these …
DescriptiveVocal Bursts Valence PredictionBeyond the heat: The mental health toll of temperature and humidity in India
Evidence on the heat-mental health nexus remains mixed. I show that this can be partly explained by previous studies focusing solely on temperature while neglecting temperature-humidity interactions. Using a measure that…
SurveyTowards Understanding Emotions for Engaged Mental Health Conversations
Providing timely support and intervention is crucial in mental health settings. As the need to engage youth comfortable with texting increases, mental health providers are exploring and adopting text-based media such as …
Sentiment AnalysisNecessary but Not Sufficient: Temperature Control and Reproducibility in LLM-as-Judge Safety Evaluations
LLM-as-judge ("grader") components are now standard in evaluation harnesses, including safety evaluations where a pass/fail verdict may gate downstream deployment decisions. A widespread assumption is that setting the gr…