Jun 20, 2015 12:02 PM EDT By Staff Reporter, UniversityHerald Reporter

Researchers at Columbia University debunk assumptions that global warming will reduce winter- or cold-related deaths around the world, HealthDay reported.

Using temperature and mortality data from 36 U.S. cities and Paris, researchers found that a warming climate trend led to much smaller reductions in cold-related deaths than some experts have anticipated.

"For years I've been hearing people say that global warming will reduce winter deaths but I wanted to check this claim out for myself," Patrick Kinney, lead author of the study, told HealthDay.

In fact, Kinney says that's unlikely to be the case.

For the study, researchers collected and analyzed mortality rates from the U.S.  National Center for Health Statistics and the French National Institute for Statistics and Economics Studies for the period 1971-2007 and compared them to temperature data, UPI reported. They saw that cities with warmer winters have similar rates  of winter deaths compared to their colder winter-counterparts and that there was little relationship evident between mortality and cold temperatures.

"These cities vary widely in demography, urban design, and socio-cultural background, all of which might influence exposure to outdoor temperature and related mortality risks,"  said Kinney,  who also serves on the New York City Panel on Climate Change.

The weak correlation between temperature differences and winter death rates suggests that other seasonal factors are driving winter excess mortality including lack of exercise, low humidity and  time spent indoors which increase the risk of catching the flu or developing other respiratory infections and its complications.

The findings are detailed in the journal Environmental Research Letters.

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