Heat exposure and elderly health

This chapter presents the impact of heat exposure on the health of elderly humans. It starts by presenting age-related changes in the different functions of human thermoregulation, focusing on the key mechanisms of skin blood flow response and sudomotor activity. It then presents indirect and direct health effects of heat exposure on the continuum from physiological strain to thermoregulatory failure, with a special focus on common comorbidities in the elderly populations. This chapter then reviews epidemiological evidence on increased mortality during hot weather and heat waves, and looks at age as a modifier of the observed associations. Finally, it presents a synthesis concluding that the current evidence is in favor of the hypothesis that the elderly are at an increased risk of adverse health effects during heat exposure and hot weather.