Choi Eun Young, Lee Haena, Chang Virginia W
Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, School of Global Public Health, New York University, New York, NY, USA
Department of Sociology, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, Korea (the Republic of).
J Epidemiol Community Health. 2023 Nov;77(11):728-735. doi: 10.1136/jech-2023-220675. Epub 2023 Aug 4.
The projected increase in extreme heat days is a growing public health concern. While exposure to extreme heat has been shown to negatively affect mortality and physical health, very little is known about its long-term consequences for late-life cognitive function. We examined whether extreme heat exposure is associated with cognitive decline among older adults and whether this association differs by race/ethnicity and neighbourhood socioeconomic status.
Data were drawn from seven waves of the Health and Retirement Study (2006-2018) merged with historical temperature data. We used growth curve models to assess the role of extreme heat exposure on trajectories of cognitive function among US adults aged 52 years and older.
We found that high exposure to extreme heat was associated with faster cognitive decline for blacks and residents of poor neighbourhoods, but not for whites, Hispanics or residents of wealthier neighbourhoods.
Extreme heat exposure can disproportionately undermine cognitive health in later life for socially vulnerable populations. Our findings underscore the need for policy actions to identify and support high-risk communities for increasingly warming temperatures.
预计极端高温天数的增加日益引起公众对健康的关注。虽然已有研究表明，暴露于极端高温会对死亡率和身体健康产生负面影响，但对于其对晚年认知功能的长期影响却知之甚少。我们研究了极端高温暴露是否与老年人认知能力下降有关，以及这种关联在种族/族裔和社区社会经济地位方面是否存在差异。
数据来自《健康与退休研究》的七轮调查（2006 - 2018年），并与历史温度数据相结合。我们使用生长曲线模型来评估极端高温暴露对52岁及以上美国成年人认知功能轨迹的作用。
我们发现，对于黑人以及贫困社区居民，高暴露于极端高温与更快的认知能力下降有关，但对于白人、西班牙裔或富裕社区居民则不然。
极端高温暴露对社会弱势群体晚年的认知健康可能造成更大损害。我们的研究结果强调，需要采取政策行动，以识别并支持在气温不断升高情况下的高风险社区。
