Impact of Climate Change on the Health of Older People Living in Korogocho and Viwandani Informal Settlements in Nairobi City, Kenya

Older people living in informal settlements are the most vulnerable to the health impacts of climate change due to the extremely poor living conditions and pre-existing health conditions. Nevertheless, evidence of the association between climate change and health in these populations is lacking. This study, therefore, examined the impact of climate change on the health of older people living in informal settlements in Nairobi City, Kenya. To analyse the climatic conditions in the study area, 37 years of data were collected. The study also employed 10-year hospital records of clinically diagnosed climate-related ailments among older people to examine the incidence of the diseases. Regression analysis was employed to examine the relationships between climatic parameters and the incidence of diseases. The results showed that the most prevalent diseases associated with climate change events were respiratory diseases, cold/fever, headache, high blood pressure, diabetes and pneumonia. Results of regression analysis revealed that 77.6% of disease prevalence is accounted for by the combined influence of rainfall and temperature. The study further showed that the main challenges faced by older people in not effectively taking action to reduce the health impact of climate change are the inability to pay for medical services and poor access to health care services. The study concludes that there is a need to come up with policies and programmes that focus attention on older people, specifically those living under poor conditions and resource-constrained settings in informal settlements under escalated risk posed by the changing climate. The results of this study strengthen research evidence on climate change health risks in older people to promote geriatric health, especially in slum settings.