Older Folks Often Ignore Summer Heat Warnings

Pride, cost concerns may play a role, study finds.

By Ed Edelson
HealthDay Reporter
Friday, July 6, 2007; 12:00 AM

Copyright © 2007 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

FRIDAY, July 6 (HealthDay News) -- Every summertime heat wave brings repeated warnings to older folks to try and stay cool, but a new study suggests few are listening.

Too often, many older Americans aren't taking the protective measures that could mean the difference between life and death when heat advisories are issued, researchers say.

Of more than 900 people aged 65 years of age or over interviewed in four cities, "virtually everyone seemed to be aware when there was a heat warning -- about 90 percent," said study author Scott C. Sheridan, an associate professor of geography at Kent State University in Ohio.

"But once I started asking questions about taking the recommended actions for protection against heat, the percentages fell. Only about 70 percent said they did anything at all, and only 50 percent said they changed their behavior," Sheridan said.

That type of inaction could prove lethal, he added, since summertime heat waves have claimed more lives than hurricanes, floods or other well-publicized natural disasters.

According to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 3,442 Americans died from heat-related causes between 1999 and 2003.

Until now, it has not been clear just how effective warnings might be in helping to save lives during heat waves.

"I worked on the development of heat-warning systems, but there was only anecdotal evidence about whether people cared or did anything about them," Sheridan said. So, financed by a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, he evaluated such systems in four cities -- Dayton, Ohio; Philadelphia; Phoenix; and Toronto, Canada.

The study was published in the July issue of the International Journal of Biometeorology.

Almost half of the hundreds of people interviewed did little to change their behavior based on the warnings, Sheridan found.

Their reasons for inaction ranged from ego to economics, he said. "In Phoenix, it was almost a point of pride to say you could survive no matter how hot it got," he said. "I even had people in their late 70s saying the message was not meant for them because 'it was meant for the elderly.' "