Impact of Heat Stress on Renal Function: A Systematic Literature Review Focusing on Workplace Heat

There is evidence that exposure to heat stress over time may lead to chronic kidney disease. This study aimed to summarize the evidence on the effects of heat stress on renal function among individuals exposed to occupational heat stress.

In this systematic review, all papers on the effect of heat stress on kidney function among workers at any workplace and heat level were included. Reviews, case reports, conference proceedings, letters, editorials, abstracts without full text, in-vitro, and animal studies were excluded. Furthermore, studies conducted on children, general populations, and hospitalized patients, as well as those not measuring heat stress, were also excluded. Medline, Scopus, ISI, and Embase databases were searched from 1st January 1991 to 19th October 2021. Search criteria were prepared by combining an 'exposed population' AND 'exposure' AND 'outcome' keywords. Quality assessment was done using the National Institutes of Health Quality Assessment tool.

A total of 24 articles with 14,282 participants were considered for qualitative synthesis. Although most papers indicated a positive association between heat stress and kidney dysfunction, especially regarding dehydration, the present study found heterogeneous evidence. Glomerular filtration rate, serum creatinine level, and albumin-to-creatinine ratio, due to occupational heat stress, were other markers mentioned in primary studies.

This review highlighted the impact of occupational heat stress on renal function. Among the markers investigated in this review, most studies reported a positive association between occupational heat stress and dehydration.