Impact of Wildfires on Older Adults

Using a qualitative community-based research approach, this study examined Indigenous Elders' experiences, vulnerabilities and coping during the 2011 wildfire evacuation of Sandy Lake First Nation. Before evacuees left Sandy Lake, a lack of emergency hazard evacuation preparedness at the community level posed challenges to the Elder evacuees. Once evacuees arrived in a host community, Elders' experiences were negatively affected by health service at the host community, health issues in the absence of family support, accommodation-related challenges, and cultural factors related to language barriers and a lack of access to traditional food. Future evacuation planning need to ideally consider the special needs of Indigenous Elders by taking into account preexisting vulnerabilities and social and cultural barriers.

Older adults are significantly impacted by natural hazards and disasters that are exacerbated by climate change. Understanding their awareness and preparedness is essential for enhancing disaster resilience. This study investigated the attitudes, actions, and recommendations of older adults regarding natural hazards that pose risks in their geographic area specifically floods, wildfires, and/or earthquakes in Canada. Methods for this study included survey and focus groups with older adults. The main findings from this study are that current awareness and preparedness among older adults is low, though stronger perceptions of risks are associated with risks specific to geographic locations where respondents live. Several barriers, such as hazard vulnerability misperceptions, cost-related reasons, and lack of hazard awareness have resulted in low awareness and preparedness among these populations.

Older adults are more likely to encounter life-threatening challenges during disaster evacuation, less likely to receive disaster warnings, and more likely to experience greater financial losses following disasters. While research has begun to measure these disparities, there is a gap in examining the effects of wildfire-specific disasters. To examine this gap, scoping review methodology was used to analyze peer-reviewed studies of how wildfires affect older adults. Preliminary findings illustrate that most literature focuses on the health impacts that older adults endure during and following wildfires, especially short and long-term effects of smoke and poor air quality on respiratory health. While previous literature has cited a need for community response strategies that incorporate the needs of older adults, few findings addressed firsthand experiences of older adults during a wildfire event. While recommendations for incorporating the needs of older adults into policy planning were briefly mentioned, most articles focused on problem scope rather than evaluating potential solutions.

The effects of exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) during wildland fires are not well understood in comparison with PM2.5 exposures from other sources. The study looked at the cardiopulmonary effects of short-term exposure to PM2.5 on smoke days to evaluate whether health effects are consistent with those during non-smoke days. Specifically, it examined cardiopulmonary hospitalizations among adults 65 y of age in U.S. counties within 200km of 123 large wildfires during 2008-2010. The study found that the increased risk of PM2.5-related cardiopulmonary hospitalizations was similar on smoke and non-smoke days across multiple lags and exposure metrics, whereas risk for asthma-related hospitalizations was higher during smoke days. The findings also suggest PM2.5 during smoke days is more likely to trigger strong, acute responses such as asthma, bronchitis, and wheezing, compared with non-smoke days, in the older population.

In this open cohort study of more than 1.2 million Kaiser Permanente Southern California members, long-term exposure to wildfire and nonwildfire fine particulate matter (PM2.5) was associated with dementia diagnosis, with stronger associations observed in potentially vulnerable subgroups. For wildfire PM2.5 exposure, associations were stronger among members less than 75 years old upon cohort entry, members from racially minoritized subgroups, and those living in high-poverty vs low-poverty census tracts. As the climate changes, interventions focused on reducing wildfire PM2.5 exposure may reduce dementia diagnoses and related inequities.

This study proposes measuring access to shelters and wildfire risks in tandem rather than in isolation to prevent wildfires from turning into human disasters. By leveraging a human-centered design approach in California, which has an active wildfire history and experience with some of the deadliest wildfires, three key findings are discerned. irst, California experiences undesirable resource allocation where regions with a high risk of wildfire are surrounded by regions with a low level of access to emergency shelters and vice versa. Second, neither access to shelters nor wildfire risk is evenly distributed across space. Third, the elderly, people with disabilities, and Hispanics are at a higher risk of experiencing high wildfire risk and low access to shelters. The findings suggest instilling equity into wildfire preparedness strategies while minimizing the gap in access to resources between disadvantaged and advantaged communities.

Wildfires as one of the most common and frequent environmental disasters in North America. Billions of government spending, public funds, resources, and personnel have been placed to cope with this natural disaster directly. The smoke, debris, particulates, ambient ultrafine particles, and other wildfire emissions have increasingly become a public health concern to which senior populations are particularly vulnerable, due to the populations' general behaviour and their physical health conditions. The study investigates the implications of wildfires on public health by identifying the relationship between the exposure of wildfire emissions and the incidences of chronic respiratory disease in the senior population in the Greater Toronto Area.

In July 2002, lightning strikes ignited over 250 fires in Quebec, Canada, destroying over one million hectares of forest. The smoke plume generated from the fires had a major impact on air quality across the east coast of the U.S. The study evaluated the health impact of smoke exposure on 5.9 million elderly people (ages 65+) in the Medicare population in 81 counties in 11 northeastern and Mid-Atlantic States of the US. The researchers estimated differences in the exposure to ambient PM2.5 concentrations and hospitalizations for cardiovascular, pulmonary and injury outcomes, before and during the smoke episode. They found that there was an associated increase rate of hospitalization for respiratory and cardiovascular diagnoses, respectively, when the smoke plume was present compared to before the smoke plume had arrived. The study suggests that rapid increases in PM2.5 concentrations resulting from wildfire smoke can impact the health of elderly populations thousands of kilometers removed from the fires.

Wildfires burn more than 7 million acres in the United States annually, according to the US Forest Service. Little is known about which subpopulations are more vulnerable to health risks from wildfire smoke. The study estimated exposure to fine particles specifically from wildfires, as well as the associations between the presence of wildfire-specific fine particles and the amount of hospital admissions for respiratory causes among subpopulations older than 65 years of age in the western United States (2004-2009). Their findings suggest that among the elderly, increased risks of respiratory admissions from wildfire smoke were significantly higher for women than for men, blacks than whites, and although not statistically significant, lower-education counties than higher-educated counties. The study raised important environmental justice issues that can inform public health programs and wildfire management. As climate change increases the frequency and intensity of wildfires, evidence on vulnerable subpopulations can inform disaster preparedness and the understanding of climate change consequences.

Wildfires can be detrimental to urban and rural communities, causing impacts in the form of psychological stress, direct physical injury, and smoke-related morbidity and mortality. This study examined the area burned by wildfires over the entire state of California from the years 2000 to 2020 in order to quantify and identify whether burned area and fire frequency differed across Census tracts according to socioeconomic indicators over time. Results showed a doubling in the number of Census tracts that experienced major wildfires and a near doubling in the number of people residing in wildfire-impacted Census tracts. Census tracts with a higher fire frequency and burned area had lower proportions of minority groups on average. However, when considering Native American populations, a greater proportion resided in highly impacted Census tracts. Such Census tracts also had higher proportions of older residents. These findings are important to policymakers and state agencies as it relates to environmental justice and the allocation of resources before, during, and after wildfires in the state of California.

Climate change is leading to worsening disasters that disproportionately impact older adults. While research has begun to measure disparities, there is a gap in examining wildfire-specific disasters. To address this gap, this scoping review analyzed literature to explore the nexus of wildfires and older adults. Findings heavily focused on health impacts of wildfires on older adults, particularly of smoke exposure and air quality. While many articles mentioned a need for community-engaged responses that incorporate the needs of older adults, few addressed firsthand experiences of older adults. Other common topics included problems with evacuation, general health impacts, and Indigenous elders' fire knowledge. Further research is needed at the nexus of wildfires and older adults to highlight both vulnerabilities and needs as well as the unique experience and knowledge of older adults to inform wildfire response strategies and tactics.

Natural disasters are often stressful for persons with cognitive impairment (PWCI) and caregivers. The study investigated the impact of the Northern California 2017 wildfires on PWCI and caregivers who were participating in a research study of an integrative group movement program at an adult day center affected by the fires. The study identified three psychosocial domains impacted by the fires. First, both PWCI and caregivers experienced emotional distress. Second, PWCI exhibited a range of cognitive responses, including confusion and disorientation, no impact, hyperawareness, and improved cognitive function and adaptability. Third, despite emotional distress, some caregivers reported increased self-efficacy. The results provide evidence of resilience in some PWCI and caregivers in response to the fires.

Vulnerable populations are disproportionately impacted by natural hazards like wildfires. It is crucial to develop equitable and effective evacuation strategies to meet their unique needs. While existing studies offer valuable insights, we need to improve our understanding of how vulnerabilities affect wildfire evacuation decision-making, as well as how this varies spatially. The goal of this study was to conduct an in-depth analysis of the impacts of social vulnerabilities on aggregated evacuation decisions, including evacuation rates, delay in departure time, and evacuation destination distance by leveraging large-scale GPS data generated by mobile devices. The findings suggest factors such as poverty, unemployment, and the presence of elderly people significantly influence multiple aggregate-level evacuation decisions. This finding emphasizes the importance for local governments to pay additional attention to these social vulnerability factors when formulating evacuation policies and strategies.

Climate change is increasing the risk of wildfires, and this risk is particularly acute and severe for people with disabilities. The purpose of this study is to understand the challenges people with hearing loss face when responding to wildfires. They address those issues by examining communication channels available to people with hearing loss, including sign language and social media, and how those tools can mitigate the challenges that this population faces during wildfires. The results indicate that individuals with hearing loss, especially Deaf people, constitute a vulnerable group during emergencies due to various communication deficiencies, primarily the inability to access critical information at the right time and in an adequate format. The study suggests a comprehensive risk communication management approach and the findings can serve emergency leaders and managers when preparing for and responding to emergencies.

There is limited understanding of how Home-Based Primary Care (HBPC) programs support their medically complex patients in event of a disaster. This study aimed to identify emergency preparedness protocols and procedures undertaken in advance of and due to the 2017 Northern California wildfires by staff at two Veterans Health Administration (VA) HBPC programs. The interview protocol addressed agency preparedness policies and procedures, continuity of care after the wildfires, as well as facilitators and barriers to disaster response. Neither HBPC program reported a loss of life due to the wildfires. Early patient preparedness, effective leadership support, and strength of program operating procedures emerged as key factors to effective response. Demand for home health care is projected to grow as the number of older adults and longevity increases. Emergency management efforts must likewise evolve to address the unique needs of these vulnerable patients in disasters.

This study investigated the causal effect of wildfire exposure on birth outcomes and older people's health outcomes in United States. This included the causal effect of the largest wildfires and exposure to multiple large wildfires. For the elderly aged 65 and older, the results indicate that exposure to multiple massive wildfires led to frequent occurrence of asthma symptoms, while the largest wildfire led to sleeping difficulty caused by asthma symptoms. The number of days older people experienced psychological problems was increased following exposure to multiple large wildfires.