Cohort-Based Analysis of Climate-Related Mortality Differentials in Spain

Dariya Ordanovich, IEGD-CCHS Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)
Diego Ramiro Fariñas, Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)
Aurelio Tobias, Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research, Spanish Council for Scientific Research
Michel Oris, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (csic)

This study aims to explore the disparities in health effects across birth cohorts as function of climate change-related exposures in Spain in the past 6 decades using a study case of Andalusia, a large autonomous community in the south of Spain which accounts for 18% of its population. We leverage individual longitudinal data with the information on the timing and location of birth and death, residential variations over the life course along with other vital events and a number of socio-economic characteristics of c10 million of Andalusian residents from 1998 until present. This data is provided at the level of census tracts and also as a regular gridded surface with a 25x25km horizontal resolution. We create indicators of individual cumulative environmental exposure by using the ERA5 global climate reanalysis data. As a proxy for human distribution, we take advantage of the cadastral data and include the surfaces representing the measures of building density in order to refine the indicators of exposure based on the urbanisation levels in the units of interest. The preliminary results reveal sharp geographic disparities in mortality outcomes across birth cohorts and highlight variations of cumulative environmental exposures during key developmental windows throughout the region.

Keywords: Population, Environment, and Climate Change, Longitudinal studies , Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Data visualisation

See extended abstract.