Abstract Background and Objectives Previous evidence showed that frailty in older age and precarious housing characteristics, respectively, contribute to poorer heat-related health outcomes. It is not known whether these conditions would interact with each other to produce a larger impact on older people’s health. Research Design and Methods A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted in May-July 2024 in a sample of older people aged 60 or over in Hong Kong, a city on the Southern coast of China. Frailty was measured using the Fried phenotype (5 items). Housing characteristics were measured by whether it is a small flat (100 square feet per person), living alone, inadequate housing (subdivided units or other forms), or whether the respondent had an air conditioner at home. Heat-related health outcomes were self-rated health, thermal comfort at home, and any heat-related signs/symptoms during summertime. Multivariable Poisson regression with robust standard error was used. Relative risk due to interaction was used to characterise additive interaction between housing characteristics and frailty. Results Among the 1,393 respondents who completed the questionnaire, about 60% reported being frail. Those who were frail were less likely to report thermally comfortable at home (RR: 0.75; 95%CI: 0.66, 0.87) and had a higher chance of reporting any heat-related signs/symptoms (RR: 1.28; 95%CI: 1.18, 1.38). We found evidence of additive interaction between frailty and living alone, in which, only for those who were robust, living alone is related to a lower risk of heat-related signs/symptoms. Discussion and Implications Targeted interventions to improve the well-being of community-dwelling older adults during periods of extreme heat should be designed especially for those who are frail.
Lai et al. (Mon,) studied this question.