Association between daily mortality and weather in Hong Kong

Background: Weather variables are believed to have influence on human health and this climate/weather-mortality/morbidity relationship has been a public health concern for centuries. However, the weather-mortality association has not received much attention in Hong Kong. Objectives: The present study attempted to investigate the association between weather and daily mortality from all causes of death, circulatory and respiratory diseases in Hong Kong from 1995 to 2005. Methods: Generalized additive models (GAM) using a cubic smoothing spline to control seasonal and long-term trends of mortality data were employed. Multiple-day lag effects of weather variables on mortality were also examined. Results: Temperature was found to be a major factor causing deaths from circulatory and respiratory diseases, but not deaths from all causes. The younger age groups (age <65) had shorter time lags for mortality than the elderly (age older age group ≥65) who were also more susceptible to weather stress.