CCUH Research
Description of the research funded by CCUH
Research Project Summary
CCUH’s current research focuses on extreme temperatures and mortality in five cities across North and South America: São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Guatemala City (Guatemala), Panama City (Panama), and Philadelphia (USA). The CCUH is exploring how neighborhood-level modifiers, such as social, physical, and natural environment characteristics, affect heat-related health risks. Findings will demonstrate to what extent neighborhood and individual factors affect heat-related mortality by analyzing how microclimates and urban heat island effects interact with factors such as age, gender, and socioeconomic status to varyingly impact susceptibility to heat.
This study will examine how heat affects mortality across neighborhoods within low- and middle- income cities in Latin America, and in the U.S. Studying these cross-country differences maximizes variability to ensure research results are generalizable across multiple settings. CCUH is also employing novel research methods to examine the mechanisms of climate-related health disparities by developing an approach that synthesizes methods from climate epidemiology, spatial statistics, and health disparity theory.
Looking forward
CCUH plans to continue to expand our research focus, including other climate exposures, geographies, and novel research methods. CCUH leverages expertise within our team and key partners, including the SALURBAL-Climate project, to develop new research questions and approaches. Future directions of the CCUH will build on our experience with urban planning, climate exposure metrics, and social and environmental determinants of health.
Pilot Summaries
The CCUH awards and supports pilot projects that explore the consequences of climate change on urban health. This program encourages proposals led by transdisciplinary teams, early-career researchers, and diverse investigators who bring new perspectives to the complex challenges posed by climate change. By generating preliminary data and insights, these pilot projects lay the groundwork for future larger-scale, transdisciplinary research efforts. CCUH is currently funding four pilot projects:
Extreme heat is an acute contributor to mortality, and heat waves will continue to become more frequent over the next 100 years. Yet little research investigates the impact of extreme heat among incarcerated populations. This interdisciplinary project applies epidemiologic, econometric, and policy surveillance methods to develop a novel database of heat-related prison conditions and policies and examine temperature-mortality associations in all U.S. state prisons (2000 - 2019). By linking data on overcrowding and air conditioning, as well as prison operating procedures and heat protection measures to mortality data this project will provide the first national evaluation of modifiable conditions to reduce heat-related mortality among imprisoned populations.
Urban heat is linked to increased mortality risks from unintentional injuries, including road traffic injuries - a concern in California, where traffic fatalities surged by 28% between 2019 and 2022. This study addresses three critical gaps within the relevant literature:1) assessing temperature-road injury associations across 75 California cities with over 100,000 residents; 2) demonstrate the intensification of the temperature-road injury association after accounting for fluctuations in daily traffic volume; and 3) study the association of interest in a large sample of CA cities , including city-specific factors, such as climatic patterns, built environment characteristics, and socioeconomic status. Using the novel multi-city time-stratified case-crossover study design, these findings stand to complement an ongoing SALURBAL project and inform future broader US research initiatives. These findings offer crucial insights into mitigating public health risks associated with road safety and heat management, which have long been pressing concerns for vulnerable communities.