Impacts of Temperature and its Variability on Mortality in New England.

ABSTRACT: Rapid buildup of greenhouse gases is expected to increase the Earth surface mean temperature, with unclear effects on temperature variability^1-3. This adds urgency to better understand the direct effects of the changing climate on human health. However, the effects of prolonged exposures to temperatures, which are important for understanding the public health burden, are unclear. Here we demonstrate that long-term survival was significantly associated with both seasonal mean values and standard deviations (SDs) of temperature among the Medicare population (aged 65+) in New England, and break that down into long-term contrasts between ZIP codes and annual anomalies. A rise in summer mean temperature of 1 °C was associated with 1.0% higher death rate whereas an increase in winter

SUBMITTER: Shi L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4666547 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature