Extreme temperature swings that are recorded lately due to climate change are now causing an increase in death rates among senior citizens in the United States. Harvard University researchers suggest that this extreme heat can significantly impact the nation's health along with environmental concerns leading to flooding and pollution that are caused by climate change.

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According to author of the study Liuhua Shi from Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, this is an emerging issue since the variability of temperatures are considered as a key feature in climate change impacts, reveals Red Orbit.

Shi and colleagues were able to study and examine those impacts by conducting an analysis of Medicare data obtained from 2.7 million people, who are aged 65 and above, from New England.

During the course of this study from 2000 to 2008, death rates apparently have risen when average summer temperatures have significant increases, according to the Weather Channel.

Shi also adds that there are many prior studies that link short term temperature changes with increasing daily deaths; however, only little evidence is proving the effects of these temperature swings. Scientists now believe that death rates are increasing during summer due to these temperatures similar to the decrease in these rates during winter when the weather is milder.

Researchers also noted that climate change can greatly affect mortality rates making seasonal weather unpredictable, resulting in different weather and temperature conditions for people who have grown acclimatized.

There are some limitations to this new study, such as they were able to obtain the death rate measurements from seniors but were not able to identify the cause of death, according to Ars Technica. This means that this new study only shows a possible link between the climate and death rates and not a cause and effect relationship.

Other experts insist that this new study should be examined more closely. According to professor of medical history and bioethics Richard Keller, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, this is clearly a crucial study. He adds that this study is valid and useful within certain limits.

The next step for the Harvard researchers is to expand their study to cover the entire population of the U.S. Shi adds that they are expecting different responses from people regarding climate change from different climate zones. The future national study can examine further the long term effects of temperature regarding mortality rates for every climate zone.

This study is published in the journal Nature Climate Change. 

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