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Heat, Disability in Older Adults, and Care

Investigators:

Emerson Baptista, Cecilia Conde, Landy Sánchez (PI)

Funding:

NIA R61AG086854 (CACHE). Partial funding from UN-WOMEN for Care Data

Data sources:

    Project Summary:

    Older adults are particularly vulnerable to heat due to age-related physiological changes and chronic health conditions, which can impair the body’s ability to regulate temperature and maintain homeostasis during heat exposure. This increases the risk of heat-related health issues such as heatstroke and cardiovascular events. Less is known about how exposure to extreme heat can exacerbate disabilities in older adults. On the one hand, exposure to heat increases the difficulty older adults in performing daily activities such as handling transportation, feeding themselves, managing finances, and maintaining the household (Ji et al 2024). On the other hand, extreme heat events could negatively affects physical performance in older adults, impacting gait speed, chair-rise performance, and balance, as well as increasing risk of cardiovascular disease. In addition, comorbilities, particular medications and reduced heat-regulating mechanisms can decrease their ability to adapt to higher temperatures.

    Moreover, while social networks and available care can reduce the heat-related dissability progression, people with disabilities tend to have lower social capital than individuas withouth dissabilities. In Mexico, the vast majority of older adult care is provided by family members, but that is changing due to changes in the population structure and family arregements. Those changes are making formal care more relevant for older adults than in the past. 

    This project seek to understand the exposure of older adults to heat extreme in Mexico and assess their vulnerability by disability status and care availability. 

    1. We evaluate the extreme heat risk for older adults by disability condition, considering sex and age
    2. We estimate future changes in exposure by projecting disabilities under two distinct climate scanerios (2020-2050)
    3. We analyze present and future care needs for older adults under different scenarios of climate and disability projections

    On the creation of the weather variables:

    For present conditions we construct a daily and hourly record of mean and maximum of Universal Thermal Comfort Index (UTCI) and temperature and humidity records by municipality in Mexico (between 1980 and 2024). For future conditions, we estimate expected temperatures under two different climate scenarios (RCP 8.5 and 6.5). Those weather and climate variables are integrated with disability estimations by municipality by type, cause and age.

    Outputs:

    • Estimations of older adult risks to extreme heat events by disabilities condition in Mexico
    • Adjusted measures of thermal comfort indexes
    • Suggested adaptation measures in the care system for older adults given climate scenarios

    Products:

      • Two papers, two conferences presentation, two teaching materials and one policy summary