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To assess the impact of weather on human mortality, particularly among elderly people and people with diseases, the authors conducted an ecological study in Brisbane, Australia. Correlation and autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) regression analyses assessed the relationship between weather and mortality in the general population and the elderly population (65 years of age and older) over the period 1986-1995. In the summer, both cardiovascular diseases and all-cause mortality in the elderly population had significant positive correlations with monthly temperatures. In the winter, negative correlations were found between monthly mean maximum temperatures and cardiovascular-disease mortality, and between monthly mean minimum temperatures and respiratory-disease mortality. Regression models were developed for various target populations and produced similar results., Introduction A range of impacts on population health due to climate change have been documented, although these climate/health relationships are not very well understood (McMichael & Githeko, 2001; McMichael, Woodruff, [...]

The authors conducted a systematic review of the studies of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) lost because of climate change. The review considered both methodological issues and research results. It found that little is known about DALYs lost because of climate change, except for results based on limited information presented in the World Health Organization (WHO) global-bur-den-of-disease study in 2002. The measurement of DALYs attributable to climate change presents additional difficulties over measurement of DALYs attributable to other causes. Further studies linking DALYs and climate change should be conducted in various populations and in different ecological regions, including developing countries., Introduction Climate change was selected as a risk factor in the category of "environmental risks" in the World Health Organization (WHO) global-burden-of-disease (GBD) study, reflecting increasing concern about global warming [...]