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Q&A
Trends in Heat Vulnerability Index (HVI) risk and heat-related mortality
0:47:04
ยท
57 sec
Carolyn Olson explains that while the HVI is not designed for trend analysis, they use heat mortality data to track trends in heat-related health impacts over time. She outlines the historical trends in heat-related deaths in New York City.
- The HVI is designed as a point-in-time measure, not for trend analysis
- Heat mortality data is used to analyze trends in heat-related health impacts
- There was a significant decline in heat-related deaths from the early 1970s to February, associated with increased residential air conditioning
- Recently, there has been an increase in heat-related deaths due to more hot days and extreme heat events
- Current data shows about 500 heat-related deaths each year in New York City
Lynn C. Schulman
0:47:04
you been seeing a trend in the HVI risk?
Carolyn Olson
0:47:08
Yeah, so the HVI is designed as point in time, so it's not designed for trend analyses, we do have trend analyses and the best way for us to look at that is with our heat mortality data.
0:47:21
And so I can share with you that when we look at trends exacerbated deaths, we see that there was a great decline between the early 1970s to February and that directly is associated with the increase in residential air conditioning that we know happened during that period.
0:47:41
And then more recently we have started to see an increase which we know reflects the growing number of hot days and extreme heat days that we're seeing in our city, and we've now plateaued out at about, as mentioned earlier, about five hundred, more than five hundred deaths each year.