Heat and Health

The paper presented in this Environmental Brownbag Seminar studies the temperature-mortality relationship in an urban context of a developing country. The authors use a novel approach by using satellite data to construct temperature measures at the neighborhood level. They combine these satellite-based measures with a rich dataset on health infrastructure and outcomes for the city of Rio de Janeiro, which experienced a large roll-out of access to health care facilities. They find that access to preventive health care mitigates the effects of extreme temperatures on deaths due to cardiovascular complications, the leading cause of death among the adult population.