# Heat-Related Health Risk Assessment and Mitigation for Aging Populations in Public Housing: A Community-Individual Environment-Health Nexus

> **NIH NIH R01** · TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $446,383

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Although older adults in public housing face serious threats to their heat-related health, current assessment
and mitigation frameworks neglect physiological conditions and place-based infrastructural and social
inequalities. Our long-term goal is to develop quantifiable measures and dose-response relationships between
the density and characteristics of urban green infrastructure (GI) and heat-related health outcomes for older
adults, which can inform community planning and resilience policies that support aging in place during current
and future climate conditions. Our objectives are to: 1) assess heat-related health risks for older adults in
public housing neighborhoods; 2) determine the effects of green infrastructure on micrometeorological
conditions and heat stress; and 3) evaluate the extent to which neighborhood GI mitigates heat-related health
risks via emotional, cognitive, and social pathways. Our central hypothesis is that neighborhood GI
characteristics are associated with a reduced risk of heat-related illness for older adults in public housing. To
achieve Aim 1, we will perform heat-related health risk assessments using the population vulnerability
framework, which integrates exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity. Biometeorological exposure will be
evaluated based on a novel human heat stress model that accounts for the physiology of older adults;
sensitivity and adaptivity will be assessed using social and infrastructural stressors. To achieve Aim 2, we will
develop 3-dimensional measures of GI characteristics using remote sensing data and street-level imagery and
video classifications and identify inter- and intra-neighborhood GI attributes that relate to micrometeorological
parameters and heat stress in older adults. To achieve Aim 3, we will conduct a 2-wave panel survey with
multi-stage sampling of older adults in public housing neighborhoods in Houston and Chicago. By comparing
baseline measures collected in the spring wave with those during heat conditions in the summer wave, we will
assess the sociopsychological pathways through which neighborhood GI is associated with heat-related
health/behavioral outcomes and subjective well-being. The research proposed in this application is innovative
because it develops heat-related health risk assessments that integrate a novel age-specific human heat-
stress model. It also focuses on GI as a modifiable risk factor and adopts a socioecological perspective to
elucidate the extent to which individuals’ interaction with their neighborhood’s green infrastructure can
moderate heat-related health risks via emotional, cognitive, and social pathways. The proposed research is
significant because it is expected to provide strong scientific justification for heat assessment and mitigation
frameworks that clarifies the complex transactions between the community-level socioenvironmental
infrastructure and an individual’s health. Ultimately, such knowledge has the potential t...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10887383
- **Project number:** 5R01MD016587-02
- **Recipient organization:** TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Dongying Li
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $446,383
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2023-07-13 → 2028-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10887383

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10887383, Heat-Related Health Risk Assessment and Mitigation for Aging Populations in Public Housing: A Community-Individual Environment-Health Nexus (5R01MD016587-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-27 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10887383. Licensed CC0.

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