Hosted by Center on Aging, Climate, and Health
In an era of ever-increasing climate hazards, it is critical to understand how extreme environmental events including wildfires, floods, and hurricanes may increase risk for Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementias. The Marshall Fire Community Health Research Study investigated a destructive wildland urban interface fire that affected communities of Superior and Louisville (CO) on December 30, 2021. Qualitative interviews in 2023 probed for impacts on physical, mental, social, and cognitive health. Reflexive thematic analysis identified behavioral and social pathways through which wildfires, and environmental disasters more broadly, may contribute to dementia risk across the life course. These pathways span early-life educational disruptions (e.g., displacement, heightened stress and anxiety), mid-life increases in risk for hypertension, obesity, diabetes, physical inactivity, depression, and alcohol consumption, and later-life risks including social isolation and poor air quality. These findings inspired a quantitative investigation in the nationally representative Health and Retirement Study to examine how exposure to local climatic events relates to cognitive health outcomes and related health behaviors in later life. We will describe the methodological process of securing permissions and establishing this new quantitative study. Our goal is to inform community interventions and targeted programs that promote recovery and long-term health across multiple scales following extreme environmental events.