Sumi Hoshiko, Paul English, Daniel Smith, Roger Trent

International Journal of Public Health

Published date August 13, 2009

A simple method for estimating excess mortality due to heat waves, as applied to the 2006 California heat wave

  • Aims to characterize excess mortality during a major heat wave in California and its regions; to assess the validity of a simple method
  • Calculates mortality rate ratios for the heat-wave period, using a reference period of the same number of days from the same summer
  • Estimates 655 excess deaths, a 6% increase (95% confidence interval, 3–9%), impacting varied geographic/climate regions
  • Concludes that California experienced excess heat-wave related mortality not restricted to high heat regions