The relative value of sociocultural and infrastructural adaptations to heat in a very hot climate in northern Australia: a case time series of heat-associated mortality

Quilty, Simon; Jupurrurla, Norman Frank; Lal, Aparna; Matthews, Veronica; Gasparrini, Antonio; Hope, Pandora; Brearley, Matt; Ebi, Kris L

doi:10.1016/s2542-5196(23)00138-9

Cited by 9 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Reliance on air-conditioning for relief from heat is unsustainable and marginalizes communities most vulnerable to heat [22]. Moreover, excessive exposure to AC spaces might impair physiological acclimatization to the prevailing environment, showing the limitations of technological and infrastructural adaptations [23]. Consistent with this, an observational study of low-income housing occupants in Mumbai showed lower thermal sensitivity and a wider comfort temperature band for occupants, compared to their affluent counterparts [24].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 78%

Adaptation to heat stress: a qualitative study from Eastern India

Khetan,

Yakkali,

Dholakia

et al. 2024

Environ. Res. Lett.

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Background: Heat stress adversely impacts a growing proportion of individuals in India. The heat-related lived experiences of Indians in smaller towns and villages are largely unknown. Methods: We conducted seven structured focus group discussions (FGD) in the town of Dalkhola, West Bengal, India; with five to ten participants in each group. All conversations were digitally audio recorded, transcribed into Bengali, and then translated to English. Two researchers separately performed a thematic analysis of the transcripts to identify common themes pertaining to the ‘effects of heat’ and ‘coping strategies’ used by participants. Results: A total of 56 (mean age 48.9 ± 17.6; female 61%; scheduled tribe 9%) individuals participated. There was wide variation in individual experiences of heat, with some people preferring to work in the winter while others preferred the summer. Housing characteristics, nature of work, gender and access to water and green spaces heavily influenced an individual's vulnerability to heat stress. Trees were seen as the primary coping strategy for heat stress (regardless of vulnerability), though many participants noted a loss of tree cover in their vicinity. Cool drinking water from public taps and electric fans (particularly table fans) were other preferred coping mechanisms. Many participants did not have adequate access to cool drinking water or electric fans, leading to increased adverse experiences from heat. Based on participant input, several action items were identified for municipal and state/central governments, schools, and private organizations. Conclusion: Individuals affected by heat have a clear preference for nature-based solutions. This is in contrast with the current design of most heat action plans in India, which put more emphasis on infrastructure, information dissemination and behavioural solutions. Various agencies (governments, schools, private organizations) seeking to adapt to increasing heat stress need to better integrate citizen perspectives into their heat action plans.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 78%

Adaptation to heat stress: a qualitative study from Eastern India

Khetan,

Yakkali,

Dholakia

et al. 2024

Environ. Res. Lett.

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“…reported that there was a social and cultural adaptation to ambient heat exposure in indigenous people. 17 Nonetheless, in our study, there was a small sample size in the indigenous people with ≥3 chronic diseases. We believe that the interpretation of the effect estimate in indigenous people with ≥3 chronic diseases needs to be made with caution, because the effect estimate yielded from the small sample could have been less stable.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 80%

“…This finding was somewhat counter-intuitive but in line with a recent study conducted in the Northern Territory, Australia. 17 Quilty et al. reported that there was a social and cultural adaptation to ambient heat exposure in indigenous people.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…16 We used the Index of Relative Socioeconomic Disadvantage (IRSD) of SEIFA for each hospitalisation. 17 Based on the percentile of IRSD, we categorised the socioeconomic status into three groups: high socioeconomic status (≤33rd percentile), middle socioeconomic status (34th–66th percentile), and low socioeconomic status (≥67th percentile) (i.e., a higher percentile of IRSD corresponded to a lower socioeconomic status).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Multimorbidity and emergency hospitalisations during hot weather

Xu,

Yi,

Bach

et al. 2024

eBioMedicine

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“…This technique can be employed to assess the spatial and temporal pattern of extreme temperature events and their health impacts. Additionally, other factors such as demographic, socioeconomic, and infrastructural factors can also be considered in the future research [ 44 ]. The influences of multiple extreme meteorological variables, e.g., humidity and temperature, on the resulting diseases’ risks can be conducted at both national and county levels for a variety of diseases [ 45 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bivariate extreme value analysis of extreme temperature and mortality in Canada, 2000-2020

Zhang,

Wang,

Ren

et al. 2024

BMC Public Health

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Climate change increases the risk of illness through rising temperature, severe precipitation and worst air pollution. This paper investigates how monthly excess mortality rate is associated with the increasing frequency and severity of extreme temperature in Canada during 2000-2020. The extreme associations were compared among four age groups across five sub-blocks of Canada based on the datasets of monthly T90 and T10, the two most representative indices of severe weather monitoring measures developed by the actuarial associations in Canada and US. We utilize a combined seasonal Auto-regressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) and bivariate Peaks-Over-Threshold (POT) method to investigate the extreme association via the extreme tail index $$\chi$$ χ and Pickands dependence function plots. It turns out that it is likely (more than 10%) to occur with excess mortality if there are unusual low temperature with extreme intensity (all $$\chi >0.1$$ χ > 0.1 except Northeast Atlantic (NEA), Northern Plains (NPL) and Northwest Pacific (NWP) for age group 0-44), while extreme frequent high temperature seems not to affect health significantly (all $$\chi \le 0.001$$ χ ≤ 0.001 except NWP). Particular attention should be paid to NWP and Central Arctic (CAR) since population health therein is highly associated with both extreme frequent high and low temperatures (both $$\chi =0.3182$$ χ = 0.3182 for all age groups). The revealed extreme dependence is expected to help stakeholders avoid significant ramifications with targeted health protection strategies from unexpected consequences of extreme weather events. The novel extremal dependence methodology is promisingly applied in further studies of the interplay between extreme meteorological exposures, social-economic factors and health outcomes.

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The relative value of sociocultural and infrastructural adaptations to heat in a very hot climate in northern Australia: a case time series of heat-associated mortality

Cited by 9 publications

References 30 publications

Adaptation to heat stress: a qualitative study from Eastern India

Adaptation to heat stress: a qualitative study from Eastern India

Multimorbidity and emergency hospitalisations during hot weather

Bivariate extreme value analysis of extreme temperature and mortality in Canada, 2000-2020

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