The impact of temperature on years of life lost in Brisbane, Australia
Author: ["Cunrui Huang","Adrian G. Barnett","Xiaoming Wang","Shilu Tong"]
Publication: Nature Climate Change
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Abstract
Previous research has examined temperature-related excess deaths or mortality risks. A study now uses years of life lost to provide a new measure of the impact of temperature on mortality, and finds an increase in the years of life lost for cold and hot temperatures. The loss will greatly increase further if future temperature rise goes beyond 2 °C above pre-industrial levels. Temperature is an important determinant of health. A better knowledge of how temperature affects population health is important not only to the scientific community, but also to the decision-makers who develop and implement early warning systems and intervention strategies to mitigate the health effects of extreme temperatures1,2. The temperature–health relationship is also of growing interest as climate change is projected to shift the overall temperature distribution higher3,4. Previous studies have examined the relative risks of temperature-related mortality, but the absolute measure of years of life lost is also useful as it combines the number of deaths with life expectancy. Here we use years of life lost to provide a novel measure of the impact of temperature on mortality in Brisbane, Australia. We also project the future temperature-related years of life lost attributable to climate change. We show that the association between temperature and years of life lost is U-shaped, with increased years of life lost for cold and hot temperatures. The temperature-related years of life lost will worsen greatly if future climate change goes beyond a 2 °C increase and without any adaptation to higher temperatures. This study highlights that public health adaptation to climate change is necessary.
Cite this article
Huang, C., Barnett, A., Wang, X. et al. The impact of temperature on years of life lost in Brisbane, Australia. Nature Clim Change 2, 265–270 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate1369
