Heat exposure and socio-economic vulnerability as synergistic factors in heat-wave-related mortality.

Heat waves may become a serious threat to the health and safety of people who currently live in temperate climates. It was therefore of interest to investigate whether more deprived populations are more vulnerable to heat waves. In order to address the question on a fine geographical scale, the spatial heterogeneity of the excess mortality in France associated with the European heat wave of August 2003 was analysed.

A predictive model relating daily fluctuations in summer temperatures and mortality rates.

Background: In the context of climate change, an efficient alert system to prevent the risk associated with summer heat is necessary. The authors' objective was to describe the temperature-mortality relationship in France over a 29-year period and to define and validate a combination of temperature factors enabling optimum prediction of the daily fluctuations in summer mortality.

Methods: The study addressed the daily mortality rates of subjects aged over 55 years, in France as a whole, from 1975 to 2003.

The impact of major heat waves on all-cause and cause-specific mortality in France from 1971 to 2003.

Objectives: The aim of the study was to identify the major heat waves (HW) that occurred in France from 1971 to 2003 and describe their impact on all-cause and cause-specific mortality.

Methods: Heat waves were defined as periods of at least three consecutive days when the maximum and the minimum temperature, averaged over the whole France, were simultaneously greater than their respective 95th percentile. The underlying causes of death were regrouped into 18 categories.