The Impact of Anxiety about Climate Change on Subjective Health Among Korean Older Adults

Background and Purpose: The impact of climate change influences vulnerable population unequally. For instance, older adults are more vulnerable to extreme heat than their younger counterparts in terms of heat-related illness. Despite climate change is one of significant social determinants of health, previous literature has not considered the perception about climate change as a key variable of widening health disparities. Thus this study aims to identify the effect of anxiety about climate change such as extreme heat on Korean older adults’ subjective health.

Methods: The nationally representative data of 2022 social survey conducted by statistics Korea were utilized for data analyses. The date included comprehensive variables related to health, education, safety, family, environment, and socioeconomic status. For the current study, independent variable was anxiety about climate change which was measured by 5-point Likert scale ranging from not anxious (1) to extreme anxious (5). Dependent variable was older adults’ subjective health status which was measured by 5-point Likert scales ranging from very poor (1) to very good (5). Descriptive statistics and correlation analysis were used to identify the characteristics of study participants and relationships among key variables. Multiple regression analysis was also conducted to examine the effect of anxiety about climate change on subjective health of 9,120 older adults aged 65 and older, controlling for socioeconomic factors such as age, gender, education, household income, marital status, and employment status.

Results: The results from correlation analysis showed that the level of anxiety about climate change was negatively associated with subjective health status among older adults(r=-0.34, p<.001). The results from multiple regression also showed that older adults’ anxiety about climate change significantly predicted their subjective health (b=-0.033, p<.001). This indicates that when older adults perceived climate change anxiously, they were more likely to have poorer subjective health. Among control variables, age, higher levels of education and household income, having spouse, and work experience were significantly associated with older adults’ higher subjective health.

Conclusions and Implications: We identified the higher level of anxiety about climate change was a significant predictor of subjective health among Korean older adults. Based on these results, we need to seriously consider the perception about climate change as a critical variable in explaining health disparities in later life and to develop strategies to strengthen a climate-resilient health system for vulnerable older people. Finally further research is needed to evaluate the effectiveness of climate-resilient health system for reducing climate change-related health disparities.