PAYING close attention to your health as winter approaches could be a matter of life or death, research has shown.
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A multi-country study has shown that temperature is responsible for a significant number of deaths with cooler weather killings 20 times as many people as hot weather.
The international study analysed over 74 million deaths in 384 locations across 13 countries.
The findings, published in The Lancet, also revealed that it wasn't necessarily extreme weather responsible for the fatalities. In fact deaths due to moderately hot or cold weather substantially exceeded those resulting from extreme heat waves or cold spells.
“It’s often assumed that extreme weather causes the majority of deaths, with most previous research focusing on the effects of extreme heat waves," said lead author, Dr Antonio Gasparrini, Senior Lecturer in Biostatistics and Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine,.
"Our findings, from an analysis of the largest dataset of temperature-related deaths ever collected, show that the majority of these deaths actually happen on moderately hot and cold days, with most deaths caused by moderately cold temperatures.”
The study analysed over 74 million deaths between 1985 and 2012 in 13 countries with a wide range of climates, from cold to subtropical. The countries involved were Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, UK, and USA.
Around 7.71% of all deaths were caused by non-optimal temperatures. Cold was responsible for the majority of these deaths (7.29% of all deaths), while just 0.42% of all deaths were attributable to heat.
The study also found that extreme temperatures were responsible for less than 1% of all deaths, while mildly sub-optimal temperatures accounted for around 7% of all deaths, with most (6.66% of all deaths) related to moderate cold.
The research was conducted in collaboration with the University of Queensland.
Research Fellow Dr Yuming Guo for the University's School of Public Health said: "during the winter months people should be mindful to cover up and protect themselves from the cold weather.
"In parts of Australia people might find this unnecessary, but you should always be prepared for a sudden drop in temperature during the winter months."
