For Debate: The August Sun and the December Snow

We conducted a 4-year survey among 6 different nursing homes located in a seaside city of northern Italy so as to collect epidemiological data on stressful weather spells and elderly mortality. Our results showed that overall elderly mortality in the cold season displayed as significantly high rates as in summer, and the monthly deaths per year of observation showed higher rates in the cold season, addressing it as the most prevalent time period related to mortality in older people. Thus, research in the field is mandatory so as to draw a broader conceptual framework for the stratification of specific population risk profiling and the assessment of adequate preventive and therapeutic measures. To the present knowledge, the lack of pathophysiological understanding, the missing evidence-based data in coping with cold weather-related elderly mortality, together with policy makers' misconceptions is mounting the controversy on this emerging clinical issue.