During 2022, excess mortality occurred worldwide, in many cases surpassed only by the excess mortality of 2020, as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. This excess mortality in 2022 has been attributed not only to the direct and indirect effects of the COVID-19 pandemic but also to extreme heat events, such as the exceptional heat waves of summer 2022. However, while between 31% and 37% of the excess deaths in summer 2022 have been attributed to COVID-19, only 22.92% in Spain, and 16.22% in Catalonia, have been directly attributed to extreme heat. We believe it is highly likely that there are other indirect effects of the pandemic. There may have been a shift in mortality rates due to a combination of worsening chronic diseases as a consequence of COVID-19 and/or a lack of control over these diseases, and a lack of diagnosis or a later diagnosis, and therefore later control, in some of these chronic diseases. In this project, we aim to analyze the geographical variability of the effect of extreme heat events on mortality in Catalonia, particularly in the summer of 2022, as well as estimate what proportion of the excess mortality can be attributed to extreme heat, the direct and indirect effects of COVID-19, and other causes, particularly during 2022.
To analyze the geographical variability of both excess mortality and the effect of extreme heat on excess mortality during the summer months in Catalonia, particularly in 2022.
To analyze the geographical variability of the direct and indirect effects of COVID-19 on excess mortality in Catalonia, particularly during 2022.
The project team is composed of researchers in disciplines such as statistics, epidemiology, public health, mathematics and data science, belonging to several institutions, the Research Group on Statistics, Econometrics and Health (GRECS) and the Research Group in Statistics and Compositional Data Analysis of the University of Girona; the Institute of Environmental Diagnosis and Water Studies (IDAEA), CSIC; the Research and Innovation Unit of the Catalan Institute of Health (ICS) of Central Catalonia; the Epidemiology and Cancer Registry Unit of Girona; the Social, Environmental and Health Observatory, Dipsalut; and the Jaume I University, Castelló.
The project is financed by both public and private institutions, regional, national and international, in all cases through competitive calls.
The results of the project have been published in scientific journals, as well as in books in digital format.
This section describes some of the results derived from the project in the form of web applications, code files and other software tools.