Health impacts of climate change in the older population

In terms of public health issues, managing health for elderly considering climate changes will be an essential part of health policies in republic of Korea, whose population is rapidly aging. However, neither health effect nor adaptation strategies to climate change have been assessed comprehensively in the elderly group, although the elderly are known as the most vulnerable group to climate change. We examined health impacts from climate changes classifying into several types of responses to heatwaves, meteorological disaster and infectious disease in the elderly group. The objectives of this study are (1) assess the effects of climate changes on the health of the elderly in each category; (2) to calculate those relative and comparative risks in comparison with other age groups; (3) to identify their sociodemographic vulnerable factors such as age, gender, and region. The effects of heatwaves on the health of the elderly were analyzed using national mortality statistics data in Seoul between 2001 and 2011 and from surveillance of heat-related patients visiting emergency departmentin 2011 and 2012. The analysis results show that the average number of deaths per a day among the elderly increased on the days with heatwaves compared with the days without. While the number of heat-related patients increased by 56% for 1℃ increase over the threshold temperature among the population aged less than 65, by 62% among older men and 74% among older women. This suggests that heatwaves had huge influences on health, especially in the elderly. The older men were more vulnerable to heat waves than their female counterparts. The most affected region was Jeollanam-do, followed by Gyeonggi-do and Seoul. Exposure to extreme heat during outdoor works and activities compared to indoor ones carried higher risks. The casualty statistics collected by National Emergency Management from 1990 to 2008 were used to analyze the effects of meteorological disaster on the health of the elderly. Compared with younger than 65 years of age, in older people typhoon showed the highest number of casualties by 4.1 times, being followed by flood by 2.7 times. The groups aged 75~84 and aged 85 or more were more vulnerable to meteorological disasters. The highly affected regions to typhoon were Gangwon-do, Gyeongsangbuk-do, and Gyeongsangnam-do and for flood Gangwon-do, Gyeonggi-do and Ulsan were the most affected. To examine infectious diseases related to climate changes, we used legal infectious disease data from the Korea Centers for Disease Control (KCDC) between 2001 and 2009. Scrub typhus turned out to be the most affected vector-borne disease. Water and food-borne infectious diseases did not show relatively huge impacts on the health of the elderly. The rate ratio of the elderly was 8.8 times higher for leptospirosis, 7.4 times higher for scrub typhus, 5.3 times higher for hemorrhagic fever with renal syndromes and 0.6 times lower for malaria than the population aged less than 65. Their rate ratio for water and food-borne diseases was 2.8 times higher for Vibrio vulnificus septicemia and 1.3 times higher for shigellosis in the elderly. Older women were more vulnerable to scrub typhus than their male counterparts and the most affected region to scrub typhus was in the order of Jeollabuk-do, Chungcheongnam-do and Ulsan. In terms of vocation, farmers, unemployed, and housewives were most vulnerable. In contrast older men were more vulnerable to leptospirosis than their female counterparts. Compared with those under 65 year age group the incidence of leptospirosis was higher in Jeollanam-do, Jeollabuk-do, and Chungcheongbuk-do for people aged 65 years or older. Also farmers, unemployed, and housewives showed higher risks.

Author dc:creator

• 조, 수남

Contributors dc:contributor

• 이, 윤환
• 대학원 의생명과학과
• 200824687

• 기후변화
• 노인의 건강영향
• 폭염
• 기상재해
• 매개체 감염병
• 수인･식품매개 감염병
• climate changes
• effects on the health of the elderly
• extreme heat
• meteorological disaster
• vector-borne disease
• water and food-borne disease

Language dc:language

ko

Identifier

http://dcoll.ajou.ac.kr:9080/dcollection/jsp/common/DcLoOrgPer.jsp?sItemId=000000015207
000000015207

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:repository.ajou.ac.kr:201003/8614