Maternal And preGnancy hEalth aNd elevaTed heAt (MAGENTA): novel data-linkages to understand how temperature impacts pregnancy outcomes for people living in deprived communities in Wales and London

This novel, trans-disciplinary data-linkage, and biological sampling project, will robustly quantify the impact, modifying factors and biological mechanisms, of exposure to elevated or prolonged heat during pregnancy, on maternal and neonatal outcomes in deprived communities in Wales and London. Large-scale temperature, environmental, socio-economic and health data, at an individual, household and area-level, will be linked with biomarkers from a consented cohort of women to answer the following research questions:

RQ1 -What are the impacts of exposure to elevated heat during pregnancy in deprived communities, on pregnancy and neonatal outcomes in Wales and London?;
RQ2 -To what extent are associations observed modified by socio-demographic, housing qualities, and other environmental factors?;
RQ3 -What are the impacts of heat stress on biological stress and inflammation measures especially of the placenta for pregnant women in Wales?;
RQ4 – How do lab-derived biomarkers inform the observations in routinely collected data and can they be used to drive a population level understanding of the impacts of current and future climate change on pregnancy and neonatal outcomes?

This project will heavily engage stakeholders and communication experts from the onset, to ensure results are visible, and can be readily and effectively translated into policy and practice.