Abstract
The two leading death causes during extreme cold weather were diseases of the nervous system (36.5%) and diseases of the respiratory system (26.8%). The prevalence of deaths due the aforementioned causes was significantly increased on extreme cold weather (and following seven days) when compared to warm temperature days (temperatures ranging between 15-20 °C; p < 0.001). In addition, temperature during extreme cold weather was significantly associated with increased mortality; a decrease of 1°C in mean temperature significantly increased mortality by 2.8% (p < 0.001). On the first and second day following extreme cold weather, mortality increased by 0.6% (p < 0.001) and 0.8% (p < 0.01), respectively.
Highlights
Climate change is estimated to affect global temperature, leading to an increased number of extreme weather events across the globe [1]
The association between extremely low or high ambient temperatures and daily deaths across several regions of the world has been extensively reported [3]. It seems that this association is cause-specific and age-specific; i.e., the adverse effects of extreme temperatures are more pronounced in elderly populations, where in cardiovascular diseases and respiratory diseases have been ranking as the top death causes due to climate changes [3,4]
The number of the deaths due to these causes was significantly increased in extreme cold weather temperature in comparison with warm days (Table 1); 292,811 deaths on extreme cold weather
Summary
Climate change is estimated to affect global temperature, leading to an increased number of extreme weather events across the globe [1]. Mortality during these extreme events has been shown to be increased [2]. The association between extremely low or high ambient temperatures and daily deaths across several regions of the world has been extensively reported [3]. Developed countries with warm climates characterized by frequent extreme heat events (e.g. south Europe countries) are usually investigated on whether isolated episodes of heat waves affect human health outcomes [5]. Less in known on the associations between extreme cold weather temperatures with mortality in these warm south European countries.
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