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Assessing the Impact of Cold and Heat Waves on Physical Activity in a Sub-Tropical Urban Population

2018; National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences; Volume: 2018; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1289/isesisee.2018.o01.03.23

2169-2181

Janice Ho, Emily Ying Yang Chan, Phoenix K. H. Mo, Holly Ching Yu Lam,

Physical Activity and Health

Background: Extreme temperatures are increasing due to climate change, however research of their impacts on health behaviour are rare. While cold winter temperatures have been identified as a barrier to physical activity, an increase of extremely hot temperatures due to climate change may also potentially affect frequency of physical activity. This study aims to estimate the change of self-reported frequency of outdoor physical activity (PA) during cold and heat waves in a sub-tropical urban population and identify its predictors.Methods: A prospective population-based cohort telephone survey study was conducted in an Asian sub-tropical city, a week after a 2016 coldwave and followed-up 1.5 years after, a week after a 2017 heatwave. Measures on self-reported changes in outdoor PA in heat and cold waves, sociodemographic variables, health status, warning awareness, temperature-related attitudes and knowledge, and protective behaviours were collected. We conducted multivariable logistic regression analyses to assess predictors of change in outdoor PA over the two extreme temperature events.Results: Temperature and other meteorological variables were significantly different during the cold and heat waves from that prior. The response rate at follow-up was 42.8% (435/1017). Overall, more participants (53.3%) reported a decrease in PA in either or both the heat and cold waves, than reported an increase (10.3%), while 36.3% of participants maintained consistent PA in both the cold and heat waves. Decreased PA was associated with females, worsened health status in winter, awareness of temperature, and certain protective behaviours, while increased PA was associated with students, those under 45, higher income, and better health status in summer.Conclusions: Our findings suggest a greater decrease of outdoor PA during cold and heat waves, and identify gender, age, income, health status, temperature-related awareness, and protective behaviours to be associated.