Child Heat Impact-Climate Health Intervention

The changing climate is producing a variety of health effects in many different sub-populations – from unborn children and pregnant females, newborns and infants, the elderly and the ill. In some, these outcomes are obvious, but it is clear that there are a range of ill-health effects that have yet to emerge – a “silent epidemic” of these outcomes represent the “invisible impacts” of climate change.

The Child Heat Impact-Climate Health Intervention (CHI²) programme intends to investigate and address one such outcome among young children in marginalised communities. 

Emerging evidence suggests that heat-related adverse respiratory outcomes are probable among children with pre-existing conditions like asthma or respiratory infection. The effects of heat among children with pre-clinical or small airways disease are currently unknown. This lack of understanding raises concerns about a potential “silent epidemic” that could manifest as chronic respiratory disorders later in life. 

“Children are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change from conception through early childhood, a critical period for organ development. “

There is also growing evidence that heat and air pollution may have synergistic effects on health. 

Childhood respiratory health is a significant driver of overall child health and quality of life in Sub-Saharan Africa. High incidences of acute lower respiratory tract infections in the region increase the risk for chronic respiratory conditions later in life. Conditions like asthma can also increase in severity with changing weather conditions. 

Understanding the impact of environmental heat stress on childhood respiratory health requires detailed modelling of temperature and temperature variability in microenvironments like schools. Crude spatial measures of heat exposure are insufficient because they do not capture the physiological effect of environmental heat on the body (heat strain). Current heat stress indices, often used to assess health impacts and inform interventions, estimate heat strain based on adult responses, which differ from children’s thermoregulatory responses. 

The CHI2  Programme, with field sites in Durban, South Africa; Harare, Zimbabwe and Haramaya, Ethiopia, and with collaborators from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Sweden and the UK, hopes to address these concerns, and together with stakeholders, co-create appropriate and feasible interventions to reduce the health impacts