JAMA Netw Open. 2025 Jul 1;8(7):e2518525. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.18525.
ABSTRACT
IMPORTANCE: Mobility, defined as the ability to move freely, decreases with increasing age. The increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather and climate events (EWCEs), such as hurricanes, pose a considerable risk for older adults (aged ≥65 years) to maintain their mobility (ie, mobility resilience).
OBJECTIVE: To examine whether an association exists between older-aged neighborhoods and mobility resilience following an EWCE.
DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This case series study used 2022 demographics with prospectively observed social infrastructure point-of-interest visitations before and after Hurricane Ian (September 23-30, 2022) to characterize neighborhood mobility resilience. Analyses were conducted for all residents (age categories, <36 years, 36-42 years, 43-53 years, >53 years) of central and southern Florida neighborhoods.
MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Using a resilience triangle framework, daily point-of-interest visitation data before, during, and after the event were used to measure the duration of recovery, ratio of recovery, ratio of impact, and area of resilience triangles.
RESULTS: Among 1819 neighborhoods including 8 084 335 residents (median [range] of neighborhood ages, 46 [19-82] years; 51% female), a total of 225 218 social infrastructure points of interest with 75.4 million visitation records were included. Compared with younger-aged neighborhoods, neighborhoods in the oldest age quartile had a longer duration of mobility recovery after Hurricane Ian (1.137 days; 95% CI, 0.844-1.431 days), lower mobility recovery ratio (-2.1%; 95% CI, -4.0% to -0.2%), higher ratio of impact (1.2%; 95% CI, 0.3%-2.1%), and higher cumulative losses of daily mobility (17.0 percentage-days; 95% CI, 8.4-26.3 percentage-days). These associations were substantially attenuated by hurricane wind exposure (ie, the strength of the storm) (Lindemann, Merenda, and Gold relative importance, 0.919-0.960 vs 0.031-0.065 for age quartiles).
CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: In this case series study, neighborhoods with an older population showed compromised mobility resilience associated with the aftermath of Hurricane Ian. These findings may inform neighborhood-targeted mobility interventions for climate resilience.
PMID:40601318 | DOI:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.18525
