Scholarlink

Background <p>Research on extreme heat has predominantly focused on acute heatwaves, obscuring the mental health risks of cumulative heat exposure for aging populations. As a proactive public health intervention, preventive health services represent a critical but underexamined dimension of community resilience to climate-related health risks. This study examines the relationships between cumulative heat exposure and depressive symptoms among older adults and explores whether preventive health services utilization attenuates this risk.</p> Methods <p>We analyzed longitudinal data from 7,464 older adults (yielding 21,383 observations) in the China Longitudinal Aging Social Survey (2016–2018-2020), linked with city-level meteorological data. Cumulative heat exposure was measured by the annual count of extreme heat days. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the CES-D-9 scale. Two-way fixed-effects regression models were employed. To mitigate confounding by indication and multiple-testing inflation, Inverse Probability of Treatment Weighting (IPTW) and Benjamini–Hochberg False-Discovery-Rate (FDR) adjustments were applied.</p> Results <p>Cumulative heat exposure significantly exacerbated depressive symptoms among older adults (β = 0.013, <i>p</i> &lt; 0.001). Preventive health services utilization provided substantial protection. Specifically, health education (β = –0.036, <i>p</i> &lt; 0.001) and health records management (β = –0.015, <i>p</i> = 0.034) demonstrated robust attenuating associations, whereas the moderating role of health screening was marginally significant. Heterogeneity analyses indicated that the buffering effects of preventive services were concentrated in older men, rural residents, and the middle region.</p> Conclusion <p>Cumulative heat exposure poses a significant risk to older adults’ mental health, but community-based preventive health services can serve as vital institutional adaptation capital to buffer this risk. Prioritizing targeted health education to bridge the knowledge-action gap, alongside continuous health records monitoring in resource-constrained rural and middle regions, offers an equitable strategy for enhancing climate resilience in aging societies.</p>

错误：搜索内容不能为空，请输入英文关键词
错误：关键词超出字数限制，请精简
高级检索

Uncovering the role of preventive health services utilization in protecting older adults from heat-related depressive risks

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

    开放获取

  • 发表日期：

    2026年6月19日

查看全文
  • Shaowei Liu,
  • Junyao Zheng,
  • Fan Yang,
  • Wenjie Li,
  • Yiyan Zhou,
  • Shihan Lu,
  • Yifan Zhang

摘要

Background

Research on extreme heat has predominantly focused on acute heatwaves, obscuring the mental health risks of cumulative heat exposure for aging populations. As a proactive public health intervention, preventive health services represent a critical but underexamined dimension of community resilience to climate-related health risks. This study examines the relationships between cumulative heat exposure and depressive symptoms among older adults and explores whether preventive health services utilization attenuates this risk.

Methods

We analyzed longitudinal data from 7,464 older adults (yielding 21,383 observations) in the China Longitudinal Aging Social Survey (2016–2018-2020), linked with city-level meteorological data. Cumulative heat exposure was measured by the annual count of extreme heat days. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the CES-D-9 scale. Two-way fixed-effects regression models were employed. To mitigate confounding by indication and multiple-testing inflation, Inverse Probability of Treatment Weighting (IPTW) and Benjamini–Hochberg False-Discovery-Rate (FDR) adjustments were applied.

Results

Cumulative heat exposure significantly exacerbated depressive symptoms among older adults (β = 0.013, p < 0.001). Preventive health services utilization provided substantial protection. Specifically, health education (β = –0.036, p < 0.001) and health records management (β = –0.015, p = 0.034) demonstrated robust attenuating associations, whereas the moderating role of health screening was marginally significant. Heterogeneity analyses indicated that the buffering effects of preventive services were concentrated in older men, rural residents, and the middle region.

Conclusion

Cumulative heat exposure poses a significant risk to older adults’ mental health, but community-based preventive health services can serve as vital institutional adaptation capital to buffer this risk. Prioritizing targeted health education to bridge the knowledge-action gap, alongside continuous health records monitoring in resource-constrained rural and middle regions, offers an equitable strategy for enhancing climate resilience in aging societies.