Study links climate-driven flooding to cognitive decline in older adults
November 25, 2025 - Brandon Drain
By tracking older adults in flood-affected Thai communities, MSU researchers connect climate disasters to cognitive decline and point to Bangkok’s Resilient City Policy as a promising defense.
Temperature increases and extreme weather events due to climate change have caused vulnerable regions like Thailand to experience a high frequency of floods.
These volatile, inclement weather events not only have detrimental effects on city infrastructure and the physical wellbeing of the population but also contribute to “high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and anxiety among affected populations,” said Fei Sun, a professor at MSU’s School of Social Work.
The acute stress triggered by floods also significantly impairs an individual’s cognitive health, with decreases in attention, working memory, and verbal memory, especially amongst the older adult population, the research team noted.
Exposure to floods also had a long lasting negative impact on an individual’s orientation to time—which tends to get worse as the years go on.
The floods also “increased the risk of exacerbation in individuals with pre-existing diabetes by 25.9% within one year of the disaster,” said Sun, “32.3% within one to three years of the disaster, and 39.5% more than three years after the disaster, respectively, and this negative effect increased progressively with time.”
Bangkok’s Resilient City Policy (RCP)—a multi-component policy aimed at improving structural systems, community preparedness, and healthcare access—shows promise in mitigating the adverse effects of floods on residents’ cognitive health.
RCP has two major components: improving quality of life, and reducing risks and improving adaptation.
At the city level, the RCP can generate direct benefits by improving urban flood defenses, such as road drainage systems, drainage tunnels, and major canals, the team noted. “These measures can reduce flooding incidence and severity, enhancing the living environment and directly improving cognitive health,” said Sun.
At the community level, RCP initiatives supported community disaster risk pilots and a network of community leaders who build capacity for disaster and climate risk management, mobilize resources, and improve flood communication.
“The RCP represents a shift from ‘fighting flooding’ to ‘living with water’,” said Sun. “This approach not only emphasizes recovery from flooding but also promotes a comprehensive strategy to adapt to changing socio-ecological conditions.”
This adaptive approach is what Sun and his team attribute to the RCP’s effectiveness in reducing the cognitive decline associated with flood disasters.
They also found that the RCP intervention increased memory test scores, both in the short- and long-term.
“These results imply that the RCP could be promising in protecting certain cognitive domains, such as memory and calculation, but might not be for other cognitive domains such as orientation to time,” said Sun. The possible protective mechanisms included reduced depression risks by 8.1% and the exacerbation risks in individuals with existing diabetes by 15.5% between one and three years after the disaster.
Urban resilience policies that combine infrastructure, preparedness, and access to health and social supports can help buffer cognitive harm, particularly for aging populations.
“The research underscores the importance of integrating climate adaptation into urban policies, emphasizing infrastructure, environmental sustainability, and social inclusivity,” said Sun. “Strengthening resilience policies through research and collaboration is crucial to protecting vulnerable populations from the growing threats of climate change.”