Contrary to common belief, high temperatures pose as great a risk to human health, if not more, in rural areas as it does in urban areas, according to research published in October in the Journal of Global Epidemiology and Environmental Health.
Research on heat vulnerability has generally focused on urban areas, with the urban heat island effect recognized as a driver of heat-related mortality in urban regions. The urban heat island effect refers to the phenomenon in which urban areas tend to be hotter than surrounding rural regions. The urban heat island effect has led to the assumption that urban residents are more vulnerable to heat than their rural-dwelling counterparts. However, a body of research suggests the opposite.
Researchers looked at epidemiological studies on heat-related mortality in rural and urban areas published between 2000 and 2017. They found the relative risk of heat-related mortality to be about 3.3 percent larger in rural areas in urban areas. The findings showed that it is not heat exposure alone that determines the heat vulnerability, but rather, a slate of population characteristics.
“Globally, rural populations are often characterized by lower socio-economic status, greater proportions of elderly people, fewer health care services, fewer media communications and less access to air conditioning — all disadvantages that are likely to lead to greater vulnerability to heat-related illnesses and deaths,” APHA member and lead study author Ying Li, PhD, MS, assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Health at the East Tennessee State University College of Public Health, told The Nation’s Health. “With relatively limited data, our study revealed that the heat mortality risk may be even higher in rural areas, particularly in less-developed countries.”
She recommended that rural communities develop heat action plans in tandem with health authorities to protect residents from the health risks of extreme heat. Such interventions in rural areas could include bolstering social networks to ensure people receive assistance, transporting people to cooler places when necessary, ensuring that local media can alert people during extreme heat events and subsidizing air conditioning or providing cooling centers to residents.
Analyzing health data to identify vulnerable populations, including seniors, people with chronic diseases and workers exposed to heat stress in industries such as farming and mining, could be an effective government intervention, Li said. She also suggested that local government improve heat warning systems and change work shift hours to reduce heat exposure above certain temperatures.
“With more research, more engagement of local leadership and rural community stakeholders and better planning and improved heat warning and response systems, we will be able to improve the resilience of rural populations to cope with the warmer climate and more frequent extreme heat events,” Li said.
For more information, visit https://norcaloa.com/GEEH/view-article/GEEH-101016.
Editor’s note: This article was corrected post-publication.
- Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association
