Weather Related Cardiovascular Deaths, Who's more Vulnerable to Temperatures in Montreal (Canada)?

Hot and cold weather effects on health outcomes are both important public health issues, particularly in the context of climate change. Several studies have begun estimating this risk function over the last decade, including lagged effects. Our study focuses on estimating the non-linear relationships between the temperature and adverse health outcomes, with special attention to delayed effects. Generalized linear Poisson regression models were used to investigate the relation between daily mean temperature and cardiovascular deaths (CVD) (total, men and women) in Montreal from January 1981 to December 2011. A distributed lag non-linear model (DLNM) was performed for temperature with lags up to 14 days, simultaneously adjusting for temporal trends, humidity, atmospheric pressure, precipitation, snowpack, maximum 24-hour average of ozone (O3), fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and days of week. There were no statistically significant effects for humidity and PM2.5, whereas atmospheric pressure, precipitation, snowpack and O3 had significant effects but smaller than temperature. Both cold and hot temperatures were significantly associated with CVD total and men deaths but the effect of heat was higher. Women were mostly vulnerable to hot temperatures in Montreal and this effect was strong.