Abstract
Miami-Dade County experiences hot and humid temperatures all year long which poses a threat to human health. In order to protect lives, the county appointed a Chief Heat Officer to focus on adaptive solutions regarding chronic heat exposure which has been supported by heat-health research. This study examines age and sex-specific risks of mortality with respect to heat stress and the Heat Vulnerability Index in Miami-Dade. Mortality data from 2015 to 2019 were acquired from the Florida Department of Health. A Hot Spot analysis of mortality and environmental variables was conducted in ArcMap to show local variations in these variables. Age and sex-specific mortality was modeled using a Generalized Additive Model in R. Finally, mortality was examined with respect to the Heat Vulnerability Index by zip codes in Miami-Dade. Across all ages, females were the most at-risk of mortality due to heat exposure. There were 19 (CI: 7, 31) excess deaths per year in women alone. 15 (CI:4, 26) of those 19 deaths per year were in the female elderly population. Adult males aged 18 to 64 were also found to be vulnerable with an excess of 6 (CI: 0, 12) deaths per year. There were twice as many deaths in adult men than adult women. We found that mortality rates across zip codes correlate with the Heat Vulnerability Index up to an index of 4, but not for an index of 5. High death rate hot spots across age groups align spatially with high Heat Vulnerability Index values. Our findings suggest that heat exposure elevates the risk of overall mortality, especially in elderly women. Elderly women should be the number one subpopulation to target when implementing solutions followed by adult men presumably who hold an occupation with high outdoor heat exposure.This knowledge can also build and specify actions in Goal 1: Inform, prepare, and protect people in the county’s Extreme Heat Action Plan, and encourage new actions targeted to these folks in future iterations of the plan.