Environmental health disparities among elderly population in New York State

• Higher air pollution exposure in areas with poor and Black older adults • Black and poor older adults’ areas had higher extreme weather events • Higher total environmental hazard events for poor and Black older adults • Poor older adults lived in areas that exhibited higher disaster risk index • No difference in air pollution and natural disaster index in older adults’ areas With increasing environmental disparities and understudied older adult populations; our study aims to evaluate whether older adults and subgroups are more likely to live in communities with higher environmental hazards. Using 2014–2019 data from the American Community Survey, we identified Census County Subdivisions with elevated proportions (≥ 75%) of four subgroups: adults aged ≥ 65 years, older adults living alone, older adults below the poverty line, and Black older adults, while comparing them with other groups. We integrated data for extreme weather and several air pollutants (UFP, PM₂.₅, O₃, SO₂, NH₃, NO 2, and CO), as well as the Disaster Risk Index derived from FEMA, using the 75 th percentile as the cutoff point for these exposures. We then applied a multivariate mixed-effects logistic regression to examine exposure disparities. Older adults living alone resided in areas with greater vulnerability to disaster (P < 0.001). Additionally, poor older adults were more likely to live in areas with multiple environmental hazards, including higher levels of UFP (OR: 1.89, 95% CI: 1.11–3.21) and SO 2 (OR: 1.68, 95% CI: 1.04–2.70), 5–8 extreme events (OR=3.1, 95% CI: 1.90–5.12), as well as significant overall disaster risk index. Furthermore, areas with a higher % of Black older adults faced more environmental hazards, such as a higher likelihood of living in communities with high levels of extreme heat (OR: 4.08; 95% CI: 1.69–9.86), high PM₂.₅ (OR: 2.69; 95% CI: 1.43–5.05), and UFP (OR: 2.1; 95% CI: 1.26–3.49), as well as multiple extreme events (OR=2.18, 95%CI: 1.36–3.64 for 1–4 events; OR=14.83, 95%CI: 8.54–26.77 for 5–8 events). We conclude that poor or Black older adults, face significantly greater exposure to multiple environmental hazards, extreme weather events, and disaster vulnerabilities – compared to other subgroups.