HHS HealthBeat (August 08, 2006)

Bad business

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I'm Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

In a heat wave, mean streets could be deadly to older people. Christopher Browning of Ohio State University bases that on what happened to older poor people in the 1995 Chicago heat wave.

Browning says people who lived in areas with rundown businesses – bars and liquor stores, and not much else – were more likely to die. He believes they stayed in stifling apartments because they were used to not going out onto streets they could have considered dangerous.

Browning says good neighbors can offset bad neighborhoods.

"Find out where the older person who you see on a regular basis lives. Try to contact that elderly person and see if they need anything. It's this informal dimension of social ties." (11 seconds)

The study in American Sociological Review was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Learn more at www.hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: August, 15 2006