Researchers from WUN member universities[1] and partners studying the impact of climate change on reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health (RMNCAH) have developed new tools to guide future funding and research policies.
Investigating the impact of climate change on reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health is critical, as these demographic groups are particularly susceptible to environmental changes, which can amplify health risks, disrupt development, and undermine access to essential healthcare services.
They produced Evidence Gap Maps (EGMs) – systematic and visual representations of available evidence – to identify gaps in knowledge and areas where further research is required. This will inform policymakers, funders and other researchers to address disparities, identify investment areas and avoid research duplication. These maps have been presented at the Global Evidence Summit [2] and Canadian Conference on Global Health [3].
The EGM of climate change and maternal health outcomes analysed 133 studies and demonstrates:
- Regional disparities: evidence is concentrated in North America and Asia with fewer studies in Africa and the Caribbean.
- Climate event exposure: only two studies focused on the impact of droughts on maternal health. Many more examined extreme heat or cold, earthquakes and other events.
- Health outcomes: there has been a concentration of studies on the impact on preterm birth, stillbirth and miscarriage but a lack of attention on breast feeding, access to contraception, exacerbating health conditions, access to social support, malnutrition, food insecurity and the heightened risks of domestic violence and rape.
The EGM of climate change and neonatal and child health analysed 196 studies and shows:
- Regional disparities: evidence is concentrated in Asia and Africa, but the Caribbean and Central America received less attention.
- Climate event exposure: most studies focused on exposures to extreme heat, drought and floods. There are gaps in the study of extreme cold and storms.
- Health outcomes: many studies examined the link between climate change and preterm birth, low birth weight, neonatal mortality but few focused on congenital disabilities. In child health outcomes, mental health problems receive less attention compared with malnutrition, diarrhoeal and respiratory diseases.
The EGM of the impact of climate change on adolescents’ health outcomes analysed 44 studies and shows:
- Regional disparities: evidence is concentrated in Asia (35 studies), with limited evidence from Africa, Australia, and South America (one study each).
- Climate event exposure: most studies focused on earthquakes, hurricanes, and tornadoes. There was less attention to the impact of wildfires, droughts, and extreme heat.
- Health outcomes: all studies reported climate change’s impact on adolescents’ mental health (44); only 10 studies reported the effect on physiological and psychosocial aspects of adolescents’ health and well-being.
The project’s principal investigator Dr Salima Meherali of the University of Alberta said:
“Our studies have identified significant research gaps in regions which face considerable exposure to climate change but have not received adequate research attention. Imbalances in regions and exposures (climate events) raise considerations about the inclusivity of evidence, skew our understanding of vulnerabilities, and undermine efforts to develop tailored interventions for populations facing unique challenges. There is also a critical need to explore specific health outcomes that have received insufficient attention, in order to support evidence-based interventions.”
What next?
- You can find out more about the WUN-funded project here, and read the following published papers:
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[1] Project partners: WUN members, the University of Alberta, the University of Ghana, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais and the University of Sheffield; external partners, the University of Health and Allied Sciences, University of Adelaide and the University of Saskatchewan.
[2] September 2024, Prague, Czech Republic
[3] October 2024, Vancouver, Canada
