Spatial and Temporal Features of Cold Mortality in Japan and Their Relation to Temperature Variations

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  • FUJIBE Fumiaki
    Research Center for Climatology, Department of Geography, Tokyo Metropolitan University
  • MATSUMOTO Jun
    Research Center for Climatology, Department of Geography, Tokyo Metropolitan University
  • SUZUKI Hideto
    Tokyo Medical Examiner's Office

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Other Title
  • 日本の低温死亡率の地域性と変動および気温との関係
  • ニホン ノ テイオン シボウリツ ノ チイキセイ ト ヘンドウ オヨビ キオン ト ノ カンケイ

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Abstract

<p>　Using Vital Statistics data of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare of Japan, regional and temporal features of cold mortality were analyzed with relation to temperature variations. For 16,573 deaths from “exposure to excessive natural cold (X31)” that is based on the Tenth International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10), mortality in each of the 47 prefectures was calculated after adjusting for differences in the age structure among prefectures and years. It was found that cold mortality is higher by about 12% in a prefecture where climatic-mean winter (December-March) temperature was 1℃ lower. For seasonal and interannual variations, the four months from December to March account for 78% of the annual cold mortality, and a winter of 1℃ lower mean temperature (December-March) has a higher cold mortality by about 20%. On a daily time scale, cold mortality is found to increase by about 15% for a 1℃ difference of daily mean temperature. These results indicate that cold mortality is dependent on climatological and meteorological conditions in each region and on a daily to yearly time scales, although the dependence is weaker than that of heat-stroke mortality.</p>

Journal

  • Tenki

    Tenki 66 (8), 513-527, 2019

    Meteorological Society of Japan

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