Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2017 Dec;61(12):2127-2140.
doi: 10.1007/s00484-017-1416-z. Epub 2017 Aug 29.

The effects of hot nights on mortality in Barcelona, Spain

D Royé  1   2
Affiliations

The effects of hot nights on mortality in Barcelona, Spain

D Royé. Int J Biometeorol. 2017 Dec.

Abstract

Heat-related effects on mortality have been widely analyzed using maximum and minimum temperatures as exposure variables. Nevertheless, the main focus is usually on the former with the minimum temperature being limited in use as far as human health effects are concerned. Therefore, new thermal indices were used in this research to describe the duration of night hours with air temperatures higher than the 95% percentile of the minimum temperature (hot night hours) and intensity as the summation of these air temperatures in degrees (hot night degrees). An exposure-response relationship between mortality due to natural, respiratory, and cardiovascular causes and summer night temperatures was assessed using data from the Barcelona region between 2003 and 2013. The non-linear relationship between the exposure and response variables was modeled using a distributed lag non-linear model. The estimated associations for both exposure variables and mortality shows a relationship with high and medium values that persist significantly up to a lag of 1-2 days. In mortality due to natural causes, an increase of 1.1% per 10% (CI95% 0.6-1.5) for hot night hours and 5.8% per each 10° (CI95% 3.5-8.2%) for hot night degrees is observed. The effects of hot night hours reach their maximum with 100% and lead to an increase by 9.2% (CI95% 5.3-13.1%). The hourly description of night heat effects reduced to a single indicator in duration and intensity is a new approach and shows a different perspective and significant heat-related effects on human health.

Keywords: Climate change; Effects; Heat; Hot night; Human health; Mortality; Tropical night.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol. 1981 May;51(5):494-501 - PubMed
    1. Indoor Air. 2017 Jul;27(4):840-851 - PubMed
    1. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2010 Sep;64(9):753-60 - PubMed
    1. Int J Epidemiol. 2013 Aug;42(4):1187-95 - PubMed
    1. J Stat Softw. 2011 Jul;43(8):1-20 - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources