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. 2023 Jun 19;7(6):igad057.
doi: 10.1093/geroni/igad057. eCollection 2023.

Hot Instantaneous Temperature and Affect: Meaningful Activities as a Buffer for Older Adults With Low Socioeconomic Status

Zhixuan Lin  1 , David C W Chin  1 , Helene H Fung  1 , Jennifer C Lay  2 , Dwight C K Tse  3
Affiliations

Hot Instantaneous Temperature and Affect: Meaningful Activities as a Buffer for Older Adults With Low Socioeconomic Status

Zhixuan Lin et al. Innov Aging. .

Abstract

Background and objectives: Extremely hot temperature affects psychological well-being negatively, especially for older adults with lower socioeconomic status (SES). The objectives of this study are to examine: (a) the impact of hot instantaneous temperature on older adults' emotional well-being and (b) whether meaningful engagement could reduce the above impact, particularly for those of lower SES.

Research design and methods: We conducted a quantitative time-sampling study during hot-weather months (May-September) in 2021 and 2022. The sample comprises 344 participants aged 60 years or older (Mage = 67.15, SDage = 5.26) living in urban areas of Hong Kong, where hot days (daily maximum temperature ≥33°C) accounted for 23% of the study days. Participants reported positive and negative affect, and engagement in meaningful activities, three times a day over a 10-day period, and wore sensors that tracked the instantaneous temperature of their immediate environment. Multilevel modeling was employed to examine the impacts on affect from temperature, SES, and meaningful activity engagement.

Results: Hotter instantaneous temperature predicted greater momentary negative affect and less positive affect immediately afterwards. Meaningful engagement significantly buffered against the affective impacts of hotter temperature, and this buffering effect was more salient among older adults of lower SES.

Discussion and implications: This study highlights the role of meaningful engagement in reducing the impact of hotter instantaneous temperature on older adults' emotional well-being, particularly for those of lower SES. Meaningful activity engagement may be capitalized on, as a strategy, to reduce climate-related social inequality.

Keywords: Daily affect; Extremely hot weather; Meaningfulness; Psychological well-being; Socioeconomic status.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Three-way interaction between temperature, between-level meaningful engagement, and household income on positive and negative affect. For both between-level meaningful engagement and household income, “Low” means 1 standard deviation (SD) below the mean score, “High” means 1 SD above the mean score. The gray shadow represents the 95% confidence interval (CI).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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