Social isolation and vulnerability to heatwave-related mortality in the urban elderly population: A time-series multi-community study in Korea

Kim, Yong-Ook; Lee, Whanhee; Kim, Ho; Cho, Youngtae

doi:10.1016/j.envint.2020.105868

Cited by 31 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…This increase would pose additional societal challenges in the future, in particular for public health, because older adults are considered to be a population subgroup that is particularly susceptible to different environmental hazards, including heat and cold (Achebak et al 2019). This increased vulnerability to heat and cold can be explained by physiological differences in thermoregulation (Basu and Samet 2002), as well as housing (Kim et al 2019), prevalence of comorbidities (Bunker et al 2016;Schneider et al 2017), and social isolation, among others (Kim et al 2020;Son et al 2019). Projection studies published so far concluded that the trends in future burden attributed to nonoptimal temperatures are largely driven by the increase in the pool of susceptible population (i.e., population >65 y) (Chen et al 2020;Lee et al 2018;Lee and Kim 2016;Li et al 2016;Marsha et al 2018;Vardoulakis et al 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nationwide Analysis of the Heat- and Cold-Related Mortality Trends in Switzerland between 1969 and 2017: The Role of Population Aging

Schrijver

Bundo

Ragettli

et al. 2022

Environ Health Perspect

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Background: Because older adults are particularly vulnerable to nonoptimal temperatures, it is expected that the progressive population aging will amplify the health burden attributable to heat and cold due to climate change in future decades. However, limited evidence exists on the contribution of population aging on historical temperature–mortality trends. Objectives: We aimed to a ) assess trends in heat- and cold-related mortality in Switzerland between 1969 and 2017 and b ) to quantify the contribution of population aging to the observed patterns. Methods: We collected daily time series of all-cause mortality by age group ( , 65–79, and 80 y and older) and mean temperature for each Swiss municipality (1969–2017). We performed a two-stage time-series analysis with distributed lag nonlinear models and multivariate longitudinal meta-regression to obtain temperature–mortality associations by canton, decade, and age group. We then calculated the corresponding excess mortality attributable to nonoptimal temperatures and compared it to the estimates obtained in a hypothetical scenario of no population aging. Results: Between 1969 and 2017, heat- and cold-related mortality represented 0.28% [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.18, 0.37] and 8.91% (95% CI: 7.46, 10.21) of total mortality, which corresponded to 2.4 and 77 deaths per 100,000 people annually, respectively. Although mortality rates for heat slightly increased over time, annual number of deaths substantially raised up from 74 (12;125) to 181 (39;307) between 1969–78 and 2009–17, mostly driven by the age group. Cold-related mortality rates decreased across all ages, but annual cold-related deaths still increased among the , due to the increase in the population at risk. We estimated that heat- and cold-related deaths would have been 52.7% and 44.6% lower, respectively, in the most recent decade in the absence of population aging. Discussion: Our findings suggest that a substantial proportion of historical temperature-related impacts can be attributed to population aging. We found that population aging has attenuated the decrease in cold-related mortality and amplified heat-related mortality. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP9835

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nationwide Analysis of the Heat- and Cold-Related Mortality Trends in Switzerland between 1969 and 2017: The Role of Population Aging

Schrijver

Bundo

Ragettli

et al. 2022

Environ Health Perspect

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“…However, the maximum RR for all‐cause heat‐related mortality was higher in rural areas of Korea compared to urban areas, although mortality significantly increased during heat waves in both settings and maximum RR in rural areas occurred at a higher temperature threshold (Kang et al, 2020). Heterogeneity in mortality risk within urban areas also exists, as elderly who were more socially isolated in urban areas in Korea were more likely to die during heatwaves than those with more social connections (Kim et al, 2020).…”

Section: Review Of the Recent Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Adverse heat‐health outcomes and critical environmental limits (Pennsylvania State University Human Environmental Age Thresholds project)

Wolf

Vecellio

Kenney

2022

American J Hum Biol

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Background The earth's climate is warming and the frequency, duration, and severity of heat waves are increasing. Meanwhile, the world's population is rapidly aging. Epidemiological data demonstrate exponentially greater increases in morbidity and mortality during heat waves in adults ≥65 years. Laboratory data substantiate the mechanistic underpinnings of age‐associated differences in thermoregulatory function. However, the specific combinations of environmental conditions (i.e., ambient temperature and absolute/relative humidity) above which older adults are at increased risk of heat‐related morbidity and mortality are less clear. Methods This review was conducted to (1) examine the recent (past 3 years) literature regarding heat‐related morbidity and mortality in the elderly and discuss projections of future heat‐related morbidity and mortality based on climate model data, and (2) detail the background and unique methodology of our ongoing laboratory‐based projects aimed toward identifying the specific environmental conditions that result in elevated risk of heat illness in older adults, and the implications of using the data toward the development of evidence‐based safety interventions in a continually‐warming climate (PSU HEAT; Human Environmental Age Thresholds). Results The recent literature demonstrates that extreme heat continues to be increasingly detrimental to the health of the elderly and that this is apparent across the world, although the specific environmental conditions above which older adults are at increased risk of heat‐related morbidity and mortality remain unclear. Conclusion Characterizing the environmental conditions above which risk of heat‐related illnesses increase remains critical to enact policy decisions and mitigation efforts to protect vulnerable people during extreme heat events.

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“…As another standard, the red line in the middle of the graph indicates the median value of closeness centrality. The exposure sector includes the most significant number of nodes with both substantial 'evidence' and 'association' because the discussion of temperature is the basis of any heatrelated vulnerability assessment (Hammer et al, 2020;Kim et al, 2020;Liu et al, 2020). Another characteristic of the sector's indicators is the positive distribution of 'evidence' and 'association,' demographic and emissions show the same trend.…”

Section: Quantitative Analysis Of Nodes and Cause-effect Links In The...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Unlike urban structure, most of the effects of demography are directly related to other effect sectors. For example, different population distributions can have different economic effects (Hatvani-Kovacs et al, 2016) and magnitudes of impact on human health (Kim et al, 2020;Lim and Skidmore, 2020). Also, high population density hurts energy and emissions (Arshad et al, 2020;Núñez-Peiró et al, 2021).…”

Section: The Causality From Urban Factors To Their Impactsmentioning

confidence: 99%

From Urban Factors to Further Impacts Redefinition of Urban Heat Vulnerability to Face Future Challenges from Multi-sectors

Yang¹,

Ding²,

Prasad³

2022

Proceedings of the 58th ISOCARP World Planning Congress

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Government agencies utilize urban heat vulnerability as a critical reference indicator for determining the need for mitigation activities. This concept has been frequently defined as the propensity of cities to incur negative impacts in response to the extremely high temperature. To face the impacts and challenges of heat vulnerability from various sectors -urban structure, building status, population, exposure, emissions, human health, and economy -a qualitative Multi-sector Causal Network (MCN) was designed to enable the application of decision-making crossing different governance departments. In this research, further quantitative analysis of the causality existing in the MCN was conducted to demonstrate the cause-effect flows, providing three levels of heat vulnerability indicators for future assessment based on the MCN. As a result, the research demonstrates that the abstract idea of urban heat vulnerability can be concretized by the outcomes it generates, which will aid urban decision-makers in the future in allocating resources more rationally to meet the requirements of diverse sectors in a balanced manner. Also, compared with other sectors, the study reveals that the economic sector has lagged in the research area of heat vulnerability, despite its importance in the network.

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Social isolation and vulnerability to heatwave-related mortality in the urban elderly population: A time-series multi-community study in Korea

Cited by 31 publications

References 67 publications

Nationwide Analysis of the Heat- and Cold-Related Mortality Trends in Switzerland between 1969 and 2017: The Role of Population Aging

Nationwide Analysis of the Heat- and Cold-Related Mortality Trends in Switzerland between 1969 and 2017: The Role of Population Aging

Adverse heat‐health outcomes and critical environmental limits (Pennsylvania State University Human Environmental Age Thresholds project)

From Urban Factors to Further Impacts Redefinition of Urban Heat Vulnerability to Face Future Challenges from Multi-sectors

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