Seasonal mortality patterns and regional contrasts in Portugal

Abstract

Abstract. The main aim of this study is to identify the geographical seasonal mortality patterns in Portugal and, for the first time, to assess the relationship between seasonal and overall mortality. Monthly data from the Portuguese mortality database (2000-2009) by major cause of death were analysed and standardized to 30 days with adjustments for leap years. The chi-square goodness-of-fit test was used to compare the observed monthly deaths with deaths that could be expected if mortality were randomly distributed throughout the year. The seasonal burden was measured using the excess winter deaths (EWD) rate and the seasonal impact of winter on mortality was assessed through the EWD Index. The regions were clustered according to the overall mortality rate and the seasonal impact: 1-low seasonality and high values of overall mortality; 2-high seasonality and high values of overall mortality; 3-low values of seasonality and low overall mortality; 4-high seasonality and low overall mortality. Significant seasonal mortality increases were found in all causes of death. There were 86,000 EWDs, mostly through circulatory and respiratory diseases. 73% of the population lives in regions with high winter vulnerability to respiratory mortality and 60% in regions with high winter vulnerability to circulatory mortality. This study reinforces the idea that vulnerability to cold weather may play an important role in the public health in Portugal. This knowledge may be used to construct a set of regulations or policies designed to implement better health planning procedures and more effective warning systems.

Health Disparities in Czechia and Portugal at Country and Municipality Levels

“…The differences in life expectancy between these two populations were mainly caused by higher mortality of circulatory system diseases among the Czech population and higher mortality due to respiratory system diseases and diabetes among the Portuguese population. This mortality profile from both countries was also identified in previous studies regarding the country [10,31,32,33] and metropolitan areas [22,34]. According to our results, the mortality of circulatory system diseases was two times higher in Prague’s population than in Lisbon.…”

The influence of the winter North Atlantic Oscillation index on hospital admissions through diseases of the circulatory system in Lisbon, Portugal

“…A similar pattern was also found in previous studies addressing vulnerability to cold weather (Almendra et al 2012, 2016, Vasconcelos et al 2013) or exposure to high levels of air pollution (Borrego et al 2009, Slezakova et al 2011) in Portugal.…”

Bootstrap approach to validate the performance of models for predicting mortality risk temperature in Portuguese Metropolitan Areas

“…There is an extensive literature describing temperature-mortality associations and the extreme temperatures are one of leading causes of death in many countries [1–6]. Portugal has been identified as one of the countries in Europe with excess mortality during the winter [7, 8]. The Eurowinter Group [7] evaluated the impact of air temperature on mortality across some European countries and found smaller increases in cold mortality in northern European countries than in Greece (southern European countries).…”