Improving heat wave responses in elderly individuals

The interaction between climate change, natural ageing, and sedentary behaviour make the elderly (65+ years old) a highly vulnerable cohort for heat-related illness during heat waves. This is a pressing public health concern given the number of older individuals is increasing (Caley and Sidhu 2011), and heat waves are forecast to become more frequent and intense (Hajat et al. 2014; Smith et al. 2016). At a population level, morbidity and mortality increase by ~30% during a heat wave (Michelozzi et al. 2009; D’Ippoliti et al. 2010) with older individuals at increased risk due to impaired heat loss pathways. For example, the 2019 UK summer saw three heat waves with 892 excess deaths in 65+ year olds in that 17 day time period (Public Health England 2019a), in 2020 three more severe heat waves were associated with 2,244 excess deaths over 19 days (Public Health England 2020). Further to deaths, heat waves are also associated with an economic and healthcare burden given proportional increases of non-fatal cases requiring medical intervention.

Whilst heat wave policies propose heat avoidance strategies for older individuals (Public Health England 2019b), many of this population group have low socio-economic support thus facilitating these actions is challenging (Yardley et al. 2011). In light of this, simple, effective interventions to reduce heat strain without high costs, or the need for extensive equipment or social support are warranted.

The proposed body of work within this project will first characterise physiological i.e. thermoregulatory, sudomotor and cardiovascular, responses to a simulated heat wave in older vs younger individuals (Gibson et al. 2015b; Chiesa et al. 2015), as well as providing novel data pertaining to the systemic response e.g. endotoxins, inflammatory markers, heat shock proteins (Gibson et al. 2014, 2015c, a, 2016; Willmott et al. 2018). Following this, the efficacy of interventions to alleviate heat strain during a heat wave e.g. hydration and cooling strategies (Trangmar et al. 2014; James et al. 2015; Marshall et al. 2020), will be examined.

Candidates for this project will likely have a background in exercise, environmental, health, and/or sport physiology, though full training will be received as required.