Heatwave morbidity and mortality in old age.

Mortality in the elderly is affected by external temperature at both extremes. Admissions to a geriatric unit during the hot summer of 1983 were compared with those in the same period in 1982, a typically British summer. There were 382 admissions and 69 deaths in 1982, and 468 admissions and 90 deaths during the same 22-week period in 1983. The principal difference in the cause of admissions was in the group cerebrovascular accidents/transient ischaemic attacks/subarachnoid haemorrhages which rose from 10% in 1982 to 15% in 1983. There was also a small increase in the proportion of respiratory-tract infections in 1983.