ArticleEnvironmental research2014
What weather variables are important in predicting heat-related mortality? A new application of statistical learning methods.
Article in Environmental research, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 32 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
32 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 149 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Mortality Effect of Apparent Temperature: A Multi-City Study in Asia.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Pooled it
- Epidemiologically validated spatial modelling reveals fine-scale heat health risks.Environmental science and ecotechnology · 2026Article
- Quantifying the exposure-response relationship between temperature exposure and semen quality.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Artificial Intelligence in Environment and Human Health: Progress, Opportunities and Challenges.Current environmental health reports · 2025Review
- Overheated and Understudied: A Scoping Review of Heat-Related Health Impacts in the Arabian Peninsula.GeoHealth · 2025Review
- Inequitable Spatial and Temporal Patterns in the Distribution of Multiple Environmental Risks and Benefits in Metro Vancouver.GeoHealth · 2024Article
- Article
- Leveraging data science and machine learning for urban climate adaptation in two major African cities: a HEBMJ open · 2024Article
- Revisiting the importance of temperature, weather and air pollution variables in heat-mortality relationships with machine learning.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2024Article
- Effects of apparent temperature on daily outpatient and inpatient visits for cause-specific respiratory diseases in Ganzhou, China: a time series study.Environmental health and preventive medicine · 2024Article
- Long-term exposure to summer specific humidity and cardiovascular disease hospitalizations in the US Medicare population.Environment international · 2023Article
- Short-term excess mortality following tropical cyclones in the United States.Science advances · 2023Article
- The Combined Effects of Short-Term Exposure to Multiple Meteorological Factors on Unintentional Drowning Mortality: Large Case-Crossover Study.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2023Article
- Web-Based Data to Quantify Meteorological and Geographical Effects on Heat Stroke: Case Study in China.GeoHealth · 2022Article
- Associations of apparent temperature with acute cardiac events and subtypes of acute coronary syndromes in Beijing, China.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Higher Temperatures, Higher Solar Radiation, and Less Humidity Is Associated With Poor Clinical and Laboratory Outcomes in COVID-19 Patients.Frontiers in public health · 2021Article
- Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices of Military Personnel Regarding Heat-Related Illness Risk Factors: Results of a Chinese Cross-Sectional Study.Frontiers in public health · 2021Article
- Impact of meteorological factors on the COVID-19 transmission: A multi-city study in China.The Science of the total environment · 2020Article
- Temperature as a modifier of the effects of air pollution on cardiovascular disease hospital admissions in Cape Town, South Africa.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2020Article
- The Role of Humidity in Associations of High Temperature with Mortality: A Multicountry, Multicity Study.Environmental health perspectives · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Hot weather increases risk of mortality. Previous studies used different sets of weather variables to characterize heat stress, resulting in variation in heat-mortality associations depending on the metric used. We employed a statistical learning method - random forests - to examine which of the various weather variables had the greatest impact on heat-related mortality. We compiled a summertime daily weather and mortality counts dataset from four U.S. cities (Chicago, IL; Detroit, MI; Philadelphia, PA; and Phoenix, AZ) from 1998 to 2006. A variety of weather variables were ranked in predicting deviation from typical daily all-cause and cause-specific death counts. Ranks of weather variables varied with city and health outcome. Apparent temperature appeared to be the most important predictor of heat-related mortality for all-cause mortality. Absolute humidity was, on average, most frequently selected as one of the top variables for all-cause mortality and seven cause-specific mortality categories. Our analysis affirms that apparent temperature is a reasonable variable for activating heat alerts and warnings, which are commonly based on predictions of total mortality in next few days. Additionally, absolute humidity should be included in future heat-health studies. Finally, random forests can be used to guide the choice of weather variables in heat epidemiology studies.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.