HEATSCAPE-Africa, a new international collaboration led by researchers in the Faculty of Health at York University, will look at the relationship between climate-related heat and mental-health. Supported by a $5.4 million grant by Wellcome, a global charitable foundation that supports science to solve urgent health challenges, the York-led project also involves partners from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) in the U.K. and community partners in Africa, including Navrongo Health Research Centre, Kintampo Health Research Centre and Kgotso Development Trust. University of Ghana and BasicNeeds Ghana are also key collaborators.
"Thanks to this generous grant from Wellcome, we hope to answer questions on the potential impact of climate change on mental-health issues such as anxiety and depression, particularly in Africa," says project lead Benedict Weobong, associate professor at the Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research at York University. "Furthermore, we will explore the underlying factors that explain the relationship and why individuals exposed to extreme heat may suffer from mental-health issues."
HEATSCAPE-Africa project lead Benedict Weobong
With a strong focus on involving those with lived experience, the project will zero in on a contextual understanding of heat and mental health, methodological advances to identify causal mechanisms through a two-year prospective cohort study and community and health-system readiness.
"York University is honoured to partner with Wellcome on this pioneering research that has the potential to transform how the world understands the impacts of climate change on mental health," says Amir Asif, Vice President of Research and Innovation at York. "By leading collaborations that span continents and disciplines, we are shaping solutions that not only advance scientific discovery, but also inspire a healthier, more equitable future for generations to come."
Weobong and his colleagues, including York University School of Global Health Associate Professor Godfred Odei Boateng, believe the connection may lie with sleep health and cognitive function being affected by extreme temperatures, with many mental-health issues coming after a period of poor sleep, and many mental health conditions affecting the quality of sleep. The relationship with high temperatures and poor sleep is also well known, with ideal temperatures for most adults being between 15 - 19C. The research will take place in Ghana, which has a hot climate year-round with typical temperatures ranging from 19 - 34C, and Zimbabwe, which experiences more seasonal variability, with temperatures dipping as low as 8C in the winter.
Co-applicant Gofred Odei Boateng
"This grant offers us a remarkable opportunity to explore the complex mechanisms behind mental-health challenges across selected life stages," says Boateng. "Additionally, it will help us identify key intervention points that have the potential to alleviate the long-term impacts of climate change and poor sleep, while informing the development of adaptive strategies for low-resource settings."
Adolescents, women of reproductive age and older adults are the focus of the five-year project. Weobong says there is good evidence supporting the vulnerability of each of these groups to climate-related heat.
"Pregnant women are already at higher risk of poor sleep and research shows they and their babies are vulnerable to adverse impacts of poor heat and sleep," says Weobong, adding that little of the research has been conducted in Africa. "We also know that adolescent brain development is affected by sleep and 50 per cent of mental-health conditions in adults started when they were adolescents."
Weobong says this cohort focus will also allow them to examine household and intergenerational linkages and explore coping strategies within family systems.
Co-applicants include Boateng, LSHTM quantitative epidemiologist assistant professor Seyi Soremekun and sleep specialist Professor Helen Anne Weiss, Zimbabwe lead Dr. Newton Matandirotya and Ghana leads Dr. Raymond Aborigo and Dr. Kenneth Ae-Ngibise.
"Mental health problems are universal, although the ways these challenges are expressed might be different," says Weobong, who is originally from Ghana and pursued research opportunities in the U.K. and India before coming to Canada. "There used to be a time where there was an assumption that depression was only a challenge of the Global North, and while we've moved past that, there are many outstanding challenges, especially when looking at access to treatment in the Global South."
