Cited by 1,347Climate Change and Health ImpactsThermoregulation and physiological responsesAir Quality and Health Impacts

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 29 of the 31 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; 10 of the 15 sources its claims cite were checked for support.

The burden of heat-related mortality attributable to recent human-induced climate change

Open access

Abstract

Climate change affects human health; however, there have been no large-scale, systematic efforts to quantify the heat-related human health impacts that have already occurred due to climate change. Here, we use empirical data from 732 locations in 43 countries to estimate the mortality burdens associated with the additional heat exposure that has resulted from recent human-induced warming, during the period 1991–2018. Across all study countries, we find that 37.0% (range 20.5–76.3%) of warm-season heat-related deaths can be attributed to anthropogenic climate change and that increased mortality is evident on every continent. Burdens varied geographically but were of the order of dozens to hundreds of deaths per year in many locations. Our findings support the urgent need for more ambitious mitigation and adaptation strategies to minimize the public health impacts of climate change. Current and future climate change is expected to impact human health, both indirectly and directly, through increasing temperatures. Climate change has already had an impact and is responsible for 37% of warm-season heat-related deaths between 1991 and 2018, with increases in mortality observed globally.

Overview

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1038/s41558-021-01058-x

Cites

29 of 29 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Nothing to recompute.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

15 Own result · 4 Own method · 3 Sources not found · 3 Own interpretation · 2 Supported · 2 Supported so far · 2 Partly supported · accuracy not yet measured

Show all 14 claims

  • Probably not a substantial claim. 6
  • The quote only partly states this claim. 2
  • It may state two separate claims as one. 12
17 of 17
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    No large-scale, systematic studies had already quantified the heat-related health impacts of climate change.

    “there have been no large-scale, systematic efforts to quantify the heat-related human health impacts that have already occurred due to climate change.”
  • The authors state this as an assumption.

    The counterfactual climate simulations, driven only by natural forcings, approximate a world without human-induced climate change.

    “a counterfactual scenario where climate simulations are driven by natural forcings only, thus approximating the climate that would have occurred in a world without human-induced or anthropogenic climate change16.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The exposure-response functions estimated from observed data apply to the modelled temperature series under both scenarios.

    “we used the estimated exposure-response functions to compute the heat-related mortality burden between 1991 and 2018 for each location under two scenarios”
  • The authors state this as an assumption.

    The difference in heat-related mortality between factual and counterfactual scenarios represents the proportion of warm-season deaths attributable to human-induced climate change.

    “The difference between the factual and counterfactual scenarios is interpretable as the proportion of total deaths during the warm season attributable to human-induced climate change.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The study is the largest attribution study so far on climate change health impacts.

    “To our knowledge, this is the largest attribution study to date on the health impacts of climate change.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The MCC database is the largest consortium of weather and health data assembled so far.

    “The observed temperature and mortality data were collected through the Multi-Country Multi-City (MCC) Collaborative Research Network, the largest weather and health data consortium to date (https://mccstudy.lshtm.ac.uk).”
6 of 6

Citations

Cites

Show all 31 references

Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. Cramer, W. et al. in IPCC Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability (eds Field, C. B. et al.) 979–1037 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2014).

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Items 1,301–1,340 of 1,340

Metadata

Authors
Vicedo-Cabrera, A. M., Scovronick, N., Sera, F., Royé, D., Schneider, R., Tobias, A., Astrom, C., Guo, Y., Honda, Y., Hondula, D. M., Abrutzky, R., Tong, S., Coelho, M. D. S. Z. S., Saldiva, P. H. N., Lavigne, E., Correa, P. M., Ortega, N. V., Kan, H., Osorio, S., Kyselý, J., Urban, A., Orru, H., Indermitte, E., Jaakkola, J. J. K., Ryti, N., Pascal, M., Schneider, A., Katsouyanni, K., Samoli, E., Mayvaneh, F., Entezari, A., Goodman, P., Zeka, A., Michelozzi, P., de’Donato, F., Hashizume, M., Alahmad, B., Diaz, M. H., Valencia, C. D. L. C., Overcenco, A., Houthuijs, D., Ameling, C., Rao, S., Di Ruscio, F., Carrasco-Escobar, G., Seposo, X., Silva, S., Madureira, J., Holobaca, I. H., Fratianni, S., Acquaotta, F., Kim, H., Lee, W., Iniguez, C., Forsberg, B., Ragettli, M. S., Guo, Y. L. L., Chen, B. Y., Li, S., Armstrong, B., Aleman, A., Zanobetti, A., Schwartz, J., Dang, T. N., Dung, D. V., Gillett, N., Haines, A., Mengel, M., Huber, V., & Gasparrini, A.
Affiliations
  • University of Bern (CH)
  • Emory University (US)
  • London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (GB)
  • Universidade de Santiago de Compostela (ES)
  • European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (GB)
  • University of Tsukuba (JP)
  • Arizona State University (US)
  • Universidad de Buenos Aires (AR)
  • Queensland University of Technology (AU)
  • Universidade de São Paulo (BR)
  • Universidad de Los Andes, Chile (CL)
  • Fudan University (CN)
  • Czech University of Life Sciences Prague (CZ)
  • University of Tartu (EE)
  • Finnish Meteorological Institute (FI)
  • University of Oulu (FI)
  • Santé Publique France (FR)
  • National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (GR)
  • Hakim Sabzevari University (IR)
  • Technological University Dublin (IE)
  • Brunel University of London (GB)
  • Regione Lazio (IT)
  • The University of Tokyo (JP)
  • Harvard University (US)
  • Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública (MX)
  • National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (NL)
  • Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NO)
  • Kyoto University (JP)
  • National Institute of Health Dr. Ricardo Jorge (PT)
  • Universidade do Porto (PT)
  • University of Turin (IT)
  • Seoul National University (KR)
  • Umeå University (SE)
  • Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (CH)
  • National Health Research Institutes (TW)
  • Universidad de la República de Uruguay (UY)
  • University of Medicine and Pharmacy at Ho Chi Minh City (VN)
  • Environment and Climate Change Canada (CA)
  • European Space Agency (FR)
  • Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (DE)
Corresponding author
  • Vicedo-Cabrera, A. M.
  • Gasparrini, A.
Venue
Nature Climate Change
Published
2021-05-31
Volume
11
Issue
6
Pages
492-500
ISSN
  • 1758-678X (ISSN-L)
  • 1758-6798
OpenAlex
W3171801815
Cited by
1,347
References
31
Citations by year
2026: 228 · 2025: 273 · 2024: 266 · 2023: 369 · 2022: 158 · 2021: 50
FWCI
83.55
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Nature Climate Change (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • Bern Open Repository and Information System (University of Bern) (acceptedVersion, other-oa)
  • LSHTM Research Online (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine) (acceptedVersion)
  • Institutional Research Information System University of Turin (University of Turin) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • BORIS (University Library Bern) (submittedVersion)
  • Brunel University Research Archive (BURA) (Brunel University London) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • DIGITAL.CSIC (Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)) (submittedVersion)
  • edoc (University of Basel) (submittedVersion)
  • QUT ePrints (Queensland University of Technology) (submittedVersion)
  • Florence Research (University of Florence) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • Site cant be reached (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • Publication Database PIK (Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK)) (submittedVersion)
  • PuSH - Publication Server of Helmholtz Zentrum München (submittedVersion)
  • Portuguese National Funding Agency for Science, Research and Technology (RCAAP Project by FCT) (submittedVersion)
  • Portuguese National Funding Agency for Science, Research and Technology (RCAAP Project by FCT) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • Seoul National University Open Repository (Seoul National University) (submittedVersion)
  • Rivm (National Institute for Public Health and the Environment) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
Funders
  • Emory University
  • Harvard University
  • Arizona State University
  • Universität Basel
  • University of Ottawa
  • University of Bern
  • Environmental Restoration and Conservation Agency
  • Instituto de Investigaciones Gino Germani
  • European Space Agency
  • European Commission (820655, 310372, HORIZON2020)
  • Public Health Agency
  • Monash University
  • Queensland University of Technology
  • Grantová Agentura České Republiky (GA20-28560S)
  • Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (01LS1201A2)
  • Seoul National University
  • Anhui Medical University
  • Fudan University
  • Universitat de València
  • Akademie Věd České Republiky
  • Università degli Studi di Firenze
  • University of Tokyo
  • Umeå Universitet
  • Shanghai Jiao Tong University
  • National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
  • Universidad de Buenos Aires
  • Universidade de São Paulo
  • Hakim Sabzevari University
  • Oulun Yliopisto
  • University of Tsukuba
  • Universidade do Porto
  • Nanjing Medical University
  • Tartu Ülikool
  • Technological University Dublin
  • Ministerio de Asuntos Económicos y Transformación Digital, Gobierno de España (PCIN-2017–046)
  • Universidade de Santiago de Compostela
  • MRC-PHE Centre for Environment and Health
  • Health Canada
  • Medical Research Council (MR/M022625/1, MR/S019669/1, MR/R013349/1)
  • Natural Environment Research Council (NE/R009384/1)
  • National Health and Medical Research Council (1163693, 1109193)
  • Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (SFRH/BPD/115112/2016)
  • Japan Science and Technology Agency (JPMJSC20E4)
  • Rijksinstituut voor Volksgezondheid en Milieu
  • School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
  • Helmholtz Zentrum München
  • School of Public Health, Imperial College London
  • Norwegian Institute of Public Health
  • National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (P30ES019776)
  • Strategic International Collaborative Research Program (JPMJSC20E4)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis › Climate Change and Health Impacts
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology (medical) › Thermoregulation and physiological responses
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis › Air Quality and Health Impacts
Keywords
heat-related mortality, anthropogenic climate change, attributable mortality, anthropogenic warming, health impacts of climate change, climate change mitigation, climate change adaptation, global health burden

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