The Thermal Environment of Housing and Its Implications for the Health of Older People in South Australia: A Mixed-Methods Study

Alana Hansen,Terence Williamson,Joost Van Hoof,Larissa Arakawa Martins,Renuka Visvanathan,Veronica Soebarto,Helen Bennetts,Dino Pisaniello,Jian Zuo

doi:10.3390/atmos13010096

Abstract

Older people are often over-represented in morbidity and mortality statistics associated with hot and cold weather, despite remaining mostly indoors. The study “Improving thermal environment of housing for older Australians” focused on assessing the relationships between the indoor environment, building characteristics, thermal comfort and perceived health/wellbeing of older South Australians over a study period that included the warmest summer on record. Our findings showed that indoor temperatures in some of the houses reached above 35 °C. With concerns about energy costs, occupants often use adaptive behaviours to achieve thermal comfort instead of using cooling (or heating), although feeling less satisfied with the thermal environment and perceiving health/wellbeing to worsen at above 28 °C (and below 15 °C). Symptoms experienced during hot weather included tiredness, shortness of breath, sleeplessness and dizziness, with coughs and colds, painful joints, shortness of breath and influenza experienced during cold weather. To express the influence of temperature and humidity on perceived health/wellbeing, a Temperature Humidity Health Index (THHI) was developed for this cohort. A health/wellbeing perception of “very good” is achieved between an 18.4 °C and 24.3 °C indoor operative temperature and a 55% relative humidity. The evidence from this research is used to inform guidelines about maintaining home environments to be conducive to the health/wellbeing of older people.

Highlights

As noted by Dahlgren and Whitehead in their model of the key determinants of health [1], human health is affected by many factors, including environmental conditions and housing
Older people are generally over-represented in morbidity and mortality statistics during hot and cold spells, as chronic medical conditions associated with aging can often increase vulnerability [3,4]
Despite Australia being renowned for having a hot climate, our findings showed that, in each of the three climate zones, there was a prevalence of indoor temperatures below those conventionally considered as comfortable

Summary

Introduction

As noted by Dahlgren and Whitehead in their model of the key determinants of health [1], human health is affected by many factors, including environmental conditions and housing. Potentially disabling ailments that may not necessarily require visits to health practitioners can be triggered or exacerbated by temperature anomalies. These can include headaches, shortness of breath, anxiety and dehydration associated with high temperatures and heatwaves [5,6,7], while arthritis, influenza, pneumonia, coronary events and asthma have been linked to cold conditions [6,8,9,10]. With a changing climate and the likelihood that the adverse impacts of extreme events on a population’s health will likely increase [12,13], it is important that this complex social determinant of health be investigated from a multi-disciplinary perspective

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