Building a climate cohort to monitor health impacts of climate change in Ghana

Global health gains achieved over the past half century are being eroded by climate change. In low and middle-income countries, scientific and policy planning capacity to incorporate climate compatible strategies into climate sensitive areas like the health sector is weak. Studies relating climate change to health are mostly observational and from high income countries where vulnerabilities may differ.

Led by the Kintampo Health Research Centre (a part of the Ghana Ministry of Health) the project team will partner with community and government stakeholders and use longitudinal data from their health and demographic surveillance system (HDSS) and cohort studies to understand causal relationships between climate change and human health outcomes, identify vulnerability and resilience factors, and fill policy and practice-relevant evidence gaps. Specifically, the project team will examine:
1.) the impact of climate change on morbidity and mortality using robust HDSS;
2.) the impact of climate change on birth and child health outcomes using well-characterized pregnancy cohort studies; and
3.) public engagement in making climate change matter in the management of health risks.

This work will build a scalable template for policy-relevant climate health research for partner health research institutions in sub-Saharan Africa.