Heat wave mortality linked to condition of local businesses
Researchers have found that elderly people are more likely to die in heat waves if they live in neighbourhoods in commercial decline, where there are no shops or other businesses which could tempt them to leave their homes. For many European countries, July 2006 was the hottest July on record, and while northern Europe is enjoying cooler temperatures now, further south people are still sweltering under the heat wave. In France alone, at least 112 people have died from heat-related causes. American researchers have looked at the factors contributing to the deaths of elderly people in the heat wave which hit Chicago in July 1995. At the height of the heat wave, almost 800 people died in one week as temperatures soared over the 100°F (37.8°C) mark. As expected, most of the deaths occurred in low income neighbourhoods. The researchers then looked at how elderly people in different types of neighbourhood faired during the heat wave. They found that there was a strong link between heat wave mortality and the types of businesses in a neighbourhood; more deaths occurred in areas of commercial decline. Many businesses in these areas were boarded-up or in poor condition, and the remaining businesses tended to be bars or liquor stores, or youth-oriented places that would not attract elderly people. According to the researchers, elderly people in these neighbourhoods probably avoided going out for their own safety, and got used to spending a lot of their time in their apartments. 'These businesses didn't promote an environment where people felt comfortable walking around, and older people were probably fearful to walk into some of these places,' said Christopher Browning, Associate Professor of Sociology at Ohio State University. 'They stayed bunkered in their apartments where they were most at risk for heat-related illnesses that led to death.' The researchers noted that in other years, there was no difference in mortality between run down neighbourhoods and other areas - it was only during the heat wave of 1995. Other factors linked to low-income areas, such as higher crime rates and fear of crime, did not show as strong a link to heat wave mortality as the condition and type of businesses in the neighbourhood. The researchers also looked at areas of low income but with a high 'collective efficacy'. Collective efficacy is the extent to which people in a community help each other and feel responsible for one another. Under normal circumstances, people in these neighbourhoods do better than those elsewhere, but in the 1995 heat wave, these differences disappeared. The researchers believe this may have been largely due to ignorance of the potentially lethal effects of the heat wave on the elderly. 'We think that neighbours just didn't realise how vulnerable the elderly were while this heat wave was going on,' explained Browning. 'More people would probably have helped, but they just didn't know. The impact didn't become clear until it was too late.' Kathleen Cagney, Assistant Professor at the Department of Health Studies at the University of Chicago, believes we need to think more broadly about the types of communities that facilitate relief from the heat. 'A focus on enriching the commercial sector may ultimately result in a greater number of lives saved,' she commented.
Countries
France, United States