Warmer winters mean MORE people die of cold

THIS week, I went to the launch of the NHS’s Stay Well This Winter campaign, which publicises things such as getting vaccinated against flu, to ease the burden on NHS services during the winter months.

While obviously important, I confess that I didn’t expect to learn much.

Then, just as the meeting was coming to an end and we were talking about the appalling numbers of older people who die as a result of falling temperatures — a disgraceful 40,000 on average each year — someone mentioned a baffling fact.

It seems that the colder the winter, the fewer people die of cold. I was astonished. In fact, my colleague said the vast majority of coldrelated deaths occur when the outside temperatures are between 2c and 6c.

There are, I learned, several reasons why a warmer winter should mean more people dying of hypothermia. The first is that at temperatures just above freezing, many people — and especially those on low incomes — will avoid putting the heating up.

They make do, soldiering on, thinking that it’s not cold enough to justify it. They fail to realise their bodies are struggling — and for the elderly this can prove fatal.

It’s easy to forget just how susceptible to the cold older people can be. In winter, a drop of just 1c results in a 10 per cent increase in people over the age of 65 having to visit their GP because of respiratory problems. It’s also likely that when it’s very cold, neighbours, friends and family are more likely to worry and drop in to check on them.

Research also shows that if older people are expecting visitors, they are more likely to turn the heating on.

So don’t wait for there to be ice on the ground to whack up the thermostat — or to pop in on an elderly relative or neighbour.

After all, a visit also tackles that other serious problem for many older people: loneliness.