A new study published in The Lancet Planetary Health by Stanford Health Policy (SHP) researchers SHP’s Qinqin Kong, PhD, and Eran Bendavid, MD, MS, asks the question: if you factor in how age affects heat tolerance, how much does that change predictions of who’s at risk of heat-related illness and death?

The researchers found that the dangerous uncompensable heat levels will be breached often and widely, particularly for older adults in South Asia and China. In fact, elderly people face more of this extreme heat risk at just 1.5°C of global warming above preindustrial levels than young adults do even at a 4°C hike, showing that aging is comparable to or even more important than warming itself when it comes to heat danger.

This work was supported by a seed grant from the Stanford Center for Innovation in Global Health.

Read the full story on Stanford Health Policy’s website.