Climate change, health and the elderly

Abstract

The consequences of climate changes are, at this moment, one of the greatest threats for human health, especially when we talk of older population. This paper collects same recent evidences coming from medical literature, with the enphasis foccussed on elderly people, preferent victims of these changes, due to the functional losses produced during the aging proccess. There is an increase in mortality and morbidity, especially among patients with chronic conditions and/or cardiac and respiratory diseases. There is, also, an increase in the incidence of infectious diseases attributable to air and water contamination, beause of a lower quality in their physical, chemical and biological propierties. Altough it is a global phenomenon, it incides most on victims from the poorest and less pepared countries. The last part of the paper offers, also according with reccent medical studies, some suggestions oriented on what we can do to limit these deletereous effects.