Wrotek Małgorzata, Marginean Iulia, Boni Zofia, Chwałczyk Franciszek, Vicedo-Cabrera Ana M, Salvador Coral, Jancewicz Barbara
Centre of Migration Research, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland.
Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland.
Environ Health. 2025 Apr 26;24(1):24. doi: 10.1186/s12940-025-01179-2.
Increasing temperatures across the globe, including in Europe, pose one of the biggest threats to human health and wellbeing. Different kinds of inequalities, determined by age, sex/gender, isolation, socio-economic status, occupation, living in the city, and health situation, create vulnerability factors influencing people's heat-related mortality risk and their daily experiences during summer.
Our study uses an interdisciplinary approach to research how intersecting inequalities generate vulnerabilities to heat stress among older adults (65+) in two European cities: Warsaw and Madrid. We combine three methodological approaches juxtaposing quantitative and qualitative data: (1) epidemiological analysis that uses daily mortality data in Warsaw and Madrid coupled with meteorological station temperature data from HadISD; (2) the OLS regression based on the survey conducted in Warsaw and Madrid in 2022; and (3) the focus group interviews conducted in Warsaw in 2021.
Our data confirms that good health and financial situation protect people both from mortality risk and negative heat experiences. Interestingly, both air conditioning (A/C) usage and being physically active increase the negative heat experiences people reported. Finally, we identified two vulnerability paradoxes understood as situations when a person or a group might be more at risk but not experience or perceive negative impacts of heat. These paradoxes affect the oldest adults (80+) and older people living alone in both cities.
Studies on vulnerability and adaptation need to incorporate both large scale top-down data sets and bottom-up, localized data based on individual experience. Combining various methods and disciplinary approaches enables identification of inequality factors and vulnerability paradoxes that remain unnoticed or underestimated while increasing people's vulnerability to heat stress.
全球气温不断上升，包括欧洲地区，这对人类健康和福祉构成了最大威胁之一。由年龄、性别、隔离状况、社会经济地位、职业、城市居住情况以及健康状况所决定的各种不平等现象，产生了一些脆弱性因素，影响着人们在夏季的热相关死亡风险及其日常体验。
我们的研究采用跨学科方法，来探究在华沙和马德里这两个欧洲城市中，交叉不平等如何导致老年人（65岁以上）易受热应激影响。我们结合了三种将定量和定性数据并列的方法：（1）流行病学分析，利用华沙和马德里的每日死亡率数据以及来自哈德利综合地面观测资料集（HadISD）的气象站温度数据；（2）基于2022年在华沙和马德里进行的调查的普通最小二乘法回归；（3）2021年在华沙进行的焦点小组访谈。
我们的数据证实，良好的健康状况和财务状况既能保护人们免受死亡风险，也能避免负面的热体验。有趣的是，使用空调和进行体育活动都会增加人们报告的负面热体验。最后，我们确定了两种脆弱性悖论，即一个人或一个群体可能面临更高风险，但却没有经历或感知到热的负面影响的情况。这些悖论影响着两个城市中最年长的成年人（80岁以上）以及独居的老年人。
关于脆弱性和适应性的研究需要纳入大规模的自上而下的数据集以及基于个人经验的自下而上的本地化数据。结合各种方法和学科途径能够识别那些在增加人们对热应激的脆弱性时仍未被注意或低估的不平等因素和脆弱性悖论。
