Mortality on extreme heat days using official thresholds in Spain: a multi-city time series analysis.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The 2003 heat wave had a high impact on mortality in Europe, which made necessary to develop heat health watch warning systems. In Spain this was carried-out by the Ministry of Health in 2004, being based on exceeding of city-specific simultaneous thresholds of minimum and maximum daily temperatures. The aim of this study is to assess effectiveness of the official thresholds established by the Ministry of Health for each provincial capital city, by quantifying and comparing the short-term effects of above-threshold days on total daily mortality.

Methods

Total daily mortality and minimum and maximum temperatures for the 52 capitals of province in Spain were collected during summer months (June to September) for the study period 1995-2004. Data was analysed using GE

SUBMITTER: Tobias A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3314548 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature