How heat puts the elderly at health risk Isseus

TThe summer of 2023 was the hottest ever recorded since 1850, and this summer could be just as sweltering. This puts older adults – a group especially vulnerable to heat-related illnesses – at elevated risks for a range of health conditions and outcomes. Older people are less able to regulate changes in body and environmental temperatures, and higher temperatures put them at greater risk of dehydration, heatstroke, changes in blood pressure, muscle cramps and dizziness.

These issues are likely to become much more prevalent than they currently are. Between now and 2050, the number of people aged 60 and over will double to almost 2.1 billionrepresenting 21% of the global population, according to projections from the World Health Organization.

Giacomo Falchetta, a scientist at the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change in Italy, and his team wanted to better understand the extent of the problem. In a new study published in Nature Communicationscorrelated the age of a given population with temperatures in the region to project how older people will be affected by a warmer climate.

They found that by 2050, more than 23% of the world’s population over the age of 69 will live where maximum temperatures exceed 37.5°C (99.5°F), compared to just 14% of that group today. This means that an additional 246 million elderly people will be exposed to dangerously high temperatures.

“Around the world, we are seeing an increase in life expectancy, which is bringing many more elderly people into the healthcare system due to climate change,” says Falchetta.

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Falchetta and his team used population data from the UN Population Division and widely released climate change estimates that predict warming temperatures in the coming years. This data allowed them to tease apart the main factors driving heat exposure in older people in different parts of the world. In temperate regions, including North America and Europe, for example, higher global temperatures will be the main factor affecting older people’s exposure to heat, while in typically warmer parts of the world, such as Asia, Africa and In South America, population growth and increases in longevity are more likely to contribute to more elderly people being exposed to heat-related illnesses.

Falchetta hopes the research will help persuade policymakers to address the looming collision between population growth, increased life expectancy and climate change. Understanding where older populations are at risk of heat-related health problems, for example, could help governments focus health care resources and respond to infrastructure needs, such as building electrical grids. to manage increased electricity demand for air conditioning and refrigeration centers, and provide more urban green spaces.

“We hope to engage public health planners, national economic planners, and international organizations such as the World Health Organization and the United Nations Development Program to provide insight into what the needs of an aging population will be in a warmer world.” he says.