Abstract
Background: There is a strong link between healthy behaviours and climate friendly behaviours, and using these synergies to promote the need for lifestyle changes would profit both agendas but they must be well adapted to the specific needs of target groups and take their perspectives into account.
Approach: Climate change is associated with extreme temperatures and weather events that affect health, and it should be high on the agenda of integrated care as older people are especially vulnerable to these changes, especially when living with chronic conditions or suffering from social isolation. To address these risks they are often told to stay inside and to not exert themselves. However, these recommendations often run counter to the need of exercise and healthy living to manage their chronic conditions, stay active and connected. The KliMate proof of concept project uses a participatory approach to develop information and teaching formats to increase climate and health literacy among older adults to ensure that they keep active and healthy while coping with the effects of climate change. To achieve this KliMate uses a living lab approach, which ensures the regular involvement of up to 30 people aged 65 and over, climate cafés, research walks, diary studies and co-design workshops to ensure whatever is developed is useful and acceptable for older people.
Results: Results are currently being finalised and will be available at the conference. The first climate café took place in mid-April 2024 with nine older people to identify and cluster factors influencing everyday mobility into the areas of weather influences, motivation, safety, terrain and infrastructure. The first Living Lab activities (diary study, research walks) were conducted from May to October 2024. The diary studies recorded different aspects of exercise and weather over three weeks using small tasks and questions, while the research walks with older residents explored two distinct neighbourhoods in Vienna to identify the resources available to them to address their social and health needs, as well as their adaptive behaviours. These walks and the interviews after the diary study identified several topics not considered by the researchers or documented in the literature so far, such as the reluctance to join clubs are group activities in old age, the shame associated with body image which hinders some to go swimming or frequent public spaces for physical activity, but also reinforced the struggle with motivation and the importance of friends and family to keep active and connected.
Implications: The participatory approach has already added insights, which could probably not have been gathered otherwise. This project underlines the importance of using several participatory methods to ensure that many different inputs can be gathered. The continuous involvement of older adults in the development of initiatives for climate-friendly health promotion for older adults will ensure that the information and media used are targeted to their needs. Co-design workshops in 2025 will now focus on co-developing different formats to support older people to make healthier choices in spite of changing climate conditions.