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In urban areas worldwide, many deaths are recorded in the summer during prolonged high temperature and air pollution exposures, particularly in regions with limited use or availability of air conditioning.
To better understand how modified ambient temperature and air pollution due to climate change will affect the health of residents in densely populated urban areas, CUNY SPH Professor Ilias Kavouras and colleagues from the Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing and Medgar Evers College will explore the effects of extreme hot weather — along with air pollution and indoor environments — on the cardiovascular and pulmonary health of elderly New York City residents with chronic respiratory diseases.
The team will start with a small pilot group of volunteers in an eight-week study this summer. Volunteers will be given wearable sensors to assess their exposure to heat and other urban environmental factors and correlate it to their heart and lung function.
“We are currently working on potential adjustments to the protocol to account for any social distancing circumstances which may be in place at the time,” Kavouras added.
Kavouras and team hope to expand the research, with funding from the National Institutes of Health, to a long-term longitudinal study of the effects of extreme weather and disaster events on aging populations.
