District vulnerability to extreme heat temperatures in Mainland Portugal

• Main Author: Silva, Susana Pereira
• Publication Date: 2019
• Other Authors: Roquette, Rita, Nunes, Baltazar
• Language: eng
• Source: Repositórios Científicos de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (RCAAP)
• Download full: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.18/6675
• topic: Heat; Mortality; VDM; Determinantes da Saúde e da Doença; Portugal

Direct effects of ambient temperature on human health are known and, in the case of high temperatures, can range from moderate skin irritations to the so-called heat stroke. Excess temperature can also have adverse effects on health by aggravating preexisting diseases such as cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, respiratory diseases, diabetes, among others. In Portugal, similarly to other countries, the effects of excess heat on health are known, specifically on mortality, in situations of sudden, intense and prolonged temperature increase, meaning during the so-called heat waves. The objective of this work was to study the risk of death of mainland Portugal districts to extreme temperatures using summer data (from june 1st to September 30th) between 2008 and 2018. For that a geoadditive Regression model with BayesX was applied to daily mortality rate (/100000 inhabitants) considering as explanatory variables daily maximum temperature, a spatial function, and the weekend day.