Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41298519›Full record

ArticleNature communications2025

Improvements in life expectancy mask rising trends in heat-related excess mortality attributable to climate change.

Veronika Huber, Susanne Breitner-Busch, Hanna Feldbusch, Katja Frieler, Cheng He, Franziska Matthies-Wiesler, Matthias Mengel, Siqi Zhang, Annette Peters, Alexandra Schneider

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Nature communications, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

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.

2 · The registry

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.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

10 authors.

Veronika HuberDoñana Biological Station (EBD), Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Sevilla, Spain. veronika.huber@ebd.csic.es.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9633-2752
Susanne Breitner-BuschChair of Epidemiology, Institute for Medical Information Processing, Biometry, and Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, Ludwigs-Maximilian-Universität (LMU), Munich, Germany.
Hanna FeldbuschInstitute of Epidemiology, Helmholtz Zentrum München - German Research Center for Environmental Health, Neuherberg, Germany.
Katja FrielerPotsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Potsdam, Germany.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4869-3013
Cheng HeInstitute of Epidemiology, Helmholtz Zentrum München - German Research Center for Environmental Health, Neuherberg, Germany.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8470-0834
Franziska Matthies-WieslerInstitute of Epidemiology, Helmholtz Zentrum München - German Research Center for Environmental Health, Neuherberg, Germany.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0732-8784
Matthias MengelPotsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Potsdam, Germany.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6724-9685
Siqi ZhangDepartment of Environmental Health Sciences, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, CT, USA.
Annette PetersChair of Epidemiology, Institute for Medical Information Processing, Biometry, and Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, Ludwigs-Maximilian-Universität (LMU), Munich, Germany.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6645-0985
Alexandra SchneiderInstitute of Epidemiology, Helmholtz Zentrum München - German Research Center for Environmental Health, Neuherberg, Germany.

Funding

EC | Horizon 2020 Framework Programme (EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation H2020) MSCA 101032087
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Previous attribution studies of heat-related excess mortality have given limited attention to temporal trends in vulnerability and their non-climatic drivers. Here, we address this gap by combining counterfactual temperature data derived from multidecadal reanalysis series with time-varying warm-season temperature-mortality associations for the 15 most populous cities in Germany over 1993-2022. We find that declining vulnerability, associated with improvements in life expectancy, has led to decreasing trends in heat-related excess mortality in most cities despite summer warming. In contrast, if life expectancies had not improved, climate change would have induced increasing trends in the heat-related death burden. The growing anthropogenic fingerprint also emerges in the relative proportion of heat-related excess mortality attributable to climate change, which increased by 5.6% per decade (95% confidence interval: 2.6%, 8.6%), averaging 53.6 % (49.8%, 58.9%) across the study period. Our results underline the importance of accounting for evolving vulnerability when attributing human health outcomes to climate change.

Indexed as

Climate ChangeHot TemperatureLife ExpectancyMortalityCitiesGermanyHumansSeasons

Identifiers

PMID41298519
PMCPMC12748886

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

None linked

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.