Acquisition of disability after age 50 following extreme urban coastal flooding events in India

Extreme climate events are infrequently considered for older individuals’ health and wellbeing in low and middle income countries. The world’s first and fourth largest urban populations exposed to extreme coastal flooding are in India (Mumbai and Kolkata). These and the next largest of India’s coastal cities, Chennai and Surat, each experienced an extreme flood event in the years 2005-2007 that was either unprecedented in recorded meteorological history (Mumbai and Chennai) or whose magnitude exceeded any in the last 30 and 40 years (Kolkata and Surat). Panel data collected before these events (2004-2005), and collected again approximately seven years later (2011-2012), are used for individuals aged 50 and over. Acquisition of any disability condition between 2004-2005 and 2011-2012 in these four large coastal cities is compared to all India’s urban areas, and to India’s five inland cities (Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, and Pune) whose population sizes were between those of the four exposed coastal cities of the study. Residing in a coastal city that experienced an extreme flood event was associated with a 66% higher odds of acquiring disability (OR 1.66; 95% CI:1.21, 2.27) relative to residing in equivalent-sized inland city. Being older, female, unmarried, in a single-generation household, and having a chronic morbidity condition had positive associations with disability acquisition, but only older age had a magnitude of association exceeding that for living in a coastal city that experienced an extreme flood event.