Impacts of climate change on health - an African case study

Climate change and the health outcomes  

A 2-yr project led by Kathryn Grace examined the relationship between precipitation, temperature and birth weight in 19 African countries and utilized climate data with extensive health data dating from 1986 to 2010, focusing on the climate change and its effect on birth weight in the study region. The outcome of the study indicated that the pregnant woman’s exposure to reduced precipitation and an increased number of very hot days indeed result in lower birth weight (Grace et al., 2015). Also, the empirical model used in the study allowed the effect of weather factors to vary by the major food production strategy in a given region, mother's education, wealth level of the household and birth season; to further investigate if vulnerability of certain populations are greater than others to unexpected weather changes. This allowed to came up with results that 'climate does indeed impact birth weight and at a level comparable to the impact of increasing education of women or electricity status of a household in some cases (Grace et al., 2015). 

     It was interesting to read about how climate change can lead to specific health outcomes such as lower birth weight, although such climate-induced health impacts may vary across countries and regions under diverse socioeconomic environments and levels of climate change intensity. Also, this study leaves a question on what kind of management strategies - whether it being mitigation or adaption method - would be effective for solving such health issues related with climate change.  More to think about!