Due to climate change, the heatwave has become a more serious public health threat with aging as an aggravating factor in recent years. There is a pressing need to detect the most effective prevention and response measures. However, the specific health effects of interventions have not been characterized on an individual scale. In this study, an intervention experiment was designed to explore the health effects of heat exposure at the individual level and assess the effects of different interventions based on a comprehensive health sensitivity index (CHSI) in Xinyi, China. Forty-one subjects were recruited randomly, and divided into one control group and three intervention groups. Interventions included education (Educate by lecturing, offering relative materials, and communication), subsidy support (offer subsidy to offset the cost of running air conditioning), and cooling-spray (install a piece of cooling-spray equipment in the yard). Results showed that systolic blood pressure (SBP) and deep sleep duration (DSD) were significantly affected by short-term heat exposure, and the effects could be alleviated by three types of interventions. The estimated CHSI indicated that the effective days of the education group were longer than other groups, while the lower CHSI of the subsidy group showed lower sensitivity than the control group. These findings provide feasible implementation strategies to optimize Heat-health action plans and evaluate the intervention performance.
Electronic Supplementary Material
Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at 10.1007/s11783-022-1545-4 and is accessible for authorized users.
The frequency and intensity of high-temperature events continue to increase, resulting in a surge of pathogenicity and mortality. People with low levels of risk perception and adaptability, such as the elderly, suffer more from high temperatures. Effective intervention measures may lead to reduced levels of high temperature-related risk. The purpose of this study was to compare changes in temperature exposure, risk perception and coping behaviors under different intervention methods. Herein we conducted three different interventions including education, subsidies for electricity and uses of spray-cooling appliances as well as collected data about temperature exposure, risk perception, and coping behaviors. Before and after the experiment, we evaluated the intervention effectiveness with a number of variables related to alerting human responses under high temperatures. We conducted nonparametric tests for paired samples and generalized linear mixed effect models. Compared with subsidy support and outdoor spray-cooling methods, education is more effective as it leads to lower levels of temperature exposure, higher levels of risk perception, and more behavioral responses. The subsidy support intervention is useful in increasing risk perception and promoting home cooling practices as well. In comparison, spray cooling barely contributes to the reduction of personal temperature exposure. The encouragement of risk-related education and continued government subsidy may prevent elderly individuals from experiencing high-temperature exposure.
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