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Decreased impacts of the 2003 heat waves on mortality in the Czech Republic: an improved response?

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Abstract

The paper examines impacts on mortality of heat waves in 2003, the hottest summer on record in the Czech Republic, and compares them with previous similar events. While most summer heat waves over the period since 1986 were associated with significantly elevated mortality, this was not the case for three out of the four heat waves in 2003. The relatively weak mortality response was particularly noteworthy for the most severe heat wave which occurred in the first 10 days of August 2003 and resulted in enormous excess mortality in some western European countries. A mortality displacement effect and short-term adaptation to heat contributed to the reduced mortality impacts of the heat waves that followed after previous relatively warm periods. However, the decreased mortality response of the 2003 heat waves compared to previous heat waves in the 1990s is also likely to have arisen from positive health-care and other socio-economic changes in the post-communist central European region over the past decade, as well as a better public awareness of heat-related risks due to enhanced media coverage and regular biometeorological forecast and warnings.

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Acknowledgements

Thanks are due to the Institute of Health Information and Statistics of the Czech Republic for providing daily mortality datasets; the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute for daily meteorological and air pollution data; J. Kynčl and M. Malý, National Institute of Public Health, Prague, for the database of morbidity from acute respiratory infections; R. Beranová and J. Hošek, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Prague, for drawing Figs. 2 and 5; and two anonymous reviewers for their useful and constructive comments. The study was supported by the Czech Science Foundation under project 205/07/1254.

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  1. Institute of Atmospheric Physics AS CR, Prague, Czech Republic

    Jan Kyselý

  2. National Institute of Public Health, Prague, Czech Republic

    Bohumír Kříž

  3. Institute of Atmospheric Physics AS CR, Boční II 1401, 141 31, Prague 4, Czech Republic

    Jan Kyselý

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Kyselý, J., Kříž, B. Decreased impacts of the 2003 heat waves on mortality in the Czech Republic: an improved response?. Int J Biometeorol 52, 733–745 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-008-0166-3

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