PGIF Project: The Impact of Extreme Heat on Children’s Health in Africa Project

Primary Investigator

Lawrence Raymond Stanberry

Professor of Pediatrics; Associate Dean for International Programs

 [email protected]

 +1 212 304 7697

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Project Description

Children are vulnerable to illness and death from extreme heat, but data on the magnitude of this public health problem and potential solutions are lacking, particularly in developing countries. We propose a 2- year project to investigate the impact of extreme heat on children’s health in three sub-Saharan African countries. Our hypotheses are that periods of extreme heat result in significant increases in emergency room (ER) visits and hospitalizations in children under 5 years of age and increased resource utilization, morbidity and mortality. Our aims are: (1) determine incidence and outcomes of heat-related hospital admissions and ER visits, (2) explore various definitions of extreme heat, as related to children’s health, (3) investigate the best forecasting model of extreme heat that predicts the weather conditions (temperature, humidity, duration) associated with increased ER visits and hospitalizations in young children. The project will leverage the Columbia University Children’s Hospitals in Africa Mapping Project (CHAMP) which assesses resources and capabilities of 24 hospitals in 16 sub-Saharan African nations. For the current project, three CHAMP hospitals will be selected as study sites based on their weather data. The Columbia team and African collaborators will meet at the Columbia Global Center/Nairobi to finalize the study design. For eight weeks each summer over two consecutive years, data for ER visits and hospitalizations for children <5 years of age meeting the case definition for pediatric heat-related illnesses will be collected including demographic information, treatment, resource utilization and outcomes. Temperature and humidity data will be collected for each site. Data analysis will occur at Columbia. This will be the first prospective study to assess the impact of extreme heat on children’s health in sub-Saharan Africa and will lay the groundwork for practical solutions to meeting the medical needs of children impacted by extreme heat.