Reducing the risks of extreme heat for seniors: communicating risks and building resilience

Abstract

Introduction As the global climate changes, heat waves are having a disproportionate impact on seniors and other socially vulnerable groups. In order to mitigate the threats of extreme heat, it is critical to develop and promote resources for coping during these events. A better understanding of the role of risk perceptions and the factors that influence them is needed in order to improve public responses to threatening events, particularly among seniors. Methods This mixed-methods study examined risk perceptions and coping practices in seniors using qualitative interviews (n = 15) and a survey (n = 244) of seniors across Waterloo Region, Ontario. Results Seniors showed relatively accurate risk tracking as indicated by the link between measures of actual risk and perception of personal risk. While vulnerability to heat is often believed to be associated with inaccurate perceptions of risk, within our sample, vulnerability appears more strongly related to social location and access to resources. Participants described social connections as important resources for resilience, but the stigma surrounding vulnerability, and other social norms, as barriers to seeking support. Conclusion The positive relationship between participants’ risk perceptions and actual risk for negative consequences of extreme heat was an important finding, given that problems of emergency preparedness and risk reduction are often framed as issues of awareness of risk, rather than social location and inequality. Along with increased public resources for coping with extreme heat, communicating about resources, fostering social connections and reducing stigma may be important leverage points for increasing the resiliency of seniors to heat waves.

COVID-19 and heat waves: New challenges for healthcare systems

“…Heat health action plans can be a valuable source to be adapted ( Daanen et al, 2020 ; Martinez et al, 2020 ; Mücke and Litvinovitch, 2020 ). At the same time it is important to communicate these combined risks from heat and COVID-19 to the vulnerable populations to increase their knowledge and risk perception, thereby incurring respective changes to their daily behaviours ( Eady et al, 2020 ; Golechha and Panigrahy, 2020 ).…”

Elderly People’s Perceptions of Heat Stress and Adaptation to Heat: An Interview Study

“…All in all, elderly people with health conditions, who are socially isolated and dependent on care from others, often experience significant stress during heatwaves, affecting their health and well-being. With this in mind, it is also important to acknowledge that the experience of heat is highly individual, and many elderly people do not perceive themselves as vulnerable to heat, in particular if they are socially active and healthy [ 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 ].…”

“…A range of individual factors, including old age and high physiological susceptibility due to pre-existing health conditions or use of medications, heat-protective behavior, and factors associated with socioeconomic status, such as living alone, housing conditions, and social contacts, are all associated with pronounced heat mortality and morbidity [ 14 ]. In addition to these epidemiological studies, there is a growing number of studies on subjective experiences of heat stress [ 10 , 12 , 14 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 ]. These studies find that elderly people often do not associate heat vulnerability with old age per se, but associate heat stress with social isolation, health impairments, reduced mobility, asset context and diversity, feelings of being helplessly exposed to heat, and housing conditions such as poor insulation, living on the top floor or in the attic, and limited access to green space and cooling devices.…”

“…These studies find that elderly people often do not associate heat vulnerability with old age per se, but associate heat stress with social isolation, health impairments, reduced mobility, asset context and diversity, feelings of being helplessly exposed to heat, and housing conditions such as poor insulation, living on the top floor or in the attic, and limited access to green space and cooling devices. The studies generally find an uneven distribution of risk [ 12 ] and establish that socially active and healthy elderly people generally describe themselves as relatively unaffected by heat [ 10 , 12 , 14 ], whereas other individuals report severe impacts. Studies have also found that healthy elderly people often report a high adaptive capacity due to their freedom from the constraints of a working life, making it easier to change daily routines [ 10 , 14 , 16 ].…”

“…Studies of the subjective experience of heat have clearly established that heat can have impacts on health and aggravate social isolation [ 8 ], as most elderly people stay at home during extreme heat [ 12 ]. Social isolation can be viewed as the strongest driver of heat vulnerability [ 18 ], and it contributes to increased risk, as socially isolated elderly people, to a higher extent, feel unprepared to adapt to heat [ 12 ]. Regular visits by, e.g., children and neighbors have thus been shown to be very important during heat events, as they are able to check up on the health status of the elderly person [ 19 ].…”