The cold left around 60 attributable deaths during winter in the Girona regions, according to estimates from the MoMo monitoring system, which takes the winter season as reference from December 1. January was the month with the greatest impact, with 35 deaths linked to low temperatures.
If to that balance are added the 14 deaths registered in November of last year, the figure rises to 74 deaths during the autumn and winter season in the whole of the Girona regions. The calculations are part of the daily monitoring of mortality from all causes and of deaths attributable to temperature excesses or defects.
Greater impact among the elderly population
The excess mortality associated with cold is concentrated especially among older people. Of the deaths attributed to low temperatures this winter in the Girona regions, 50 corresponded to people over 65 years old. Within that group, 34 cases were of people over 85 years old.
The records thus point to a greater impact on the most vulnerable groups, especially elderly people and patients with chronic pathologies, two particularly sensitive profiles when temperatures drop.
Estimates still not consolidated
The MoMo system is managed by the National Epidemiology Center of the Carlos III Health Institute and aims to improve the capacity for prevention and response to health risk situations linked to cold. The Ministry of Health warns that these estimates of excess mortality from all causes and deaths attributable to temperature defect cannot be considered consolidated until at least one month has passed since their publication.
Health points out that exposure to low temperatures is related to the intensification of diseases in the vulnerable population in the medium and long term, in addition to favoring the opportunistic action of infectious agents. It also points out that cold weakens the body's defensive response and can cause decompensations that worsen chronic diseases. Part of that excess morbidity and mortality associated with low temperatures, it indicates, has an infectious origin, mainly due to agents such as the influenza virus or pneumococcus.
A very rainy winter, although not one of the coldest
This health balance coincides with a winter that, in meteorological terms, has been one of the rainiest of recent years in the Girona regions, although it does not rank among the coldest except for some specific exceptions. Despite this, the impact of cold on mortality was strongly felt again among the older population, especially during January, which concentrated the majority of estimated deaths in Girona.