Climate change and its impacts on older adults’ health in Kazakhstan

There has been growing concern over climate change and its impacts on many aspects of human society, particularly on health. Climate change may affect health in a wide range of forms: increased floods and droughts, increased frequency and intensity of heat waves, changes in the distribution of vector-borne diseases and effects on the risk of disasters and malnutrition (Haines et al 2006b). So far, little is known about climate change and its impact on older adults' health in Central Asia, particularly in Khazakhstan, where a downturn of life expectancy, has been prevalent. The objective of this paper is to examine the impacts of climate change on older adults’ health in Kazakhstan. Based on the literature review and empirical evidence, this study concludes that climate change largely affects older adults’ health in Kazakhstan. This study emphasizes that older adults are becoming increasingly aware of the climate-change risks and its impacts on human health. Older adults are matured human capital of any society and can be utilized to address the climate-related health consequences in the twenty-first century. It is hoped that the findings of this study will have enormous policy implications.

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