Events

A rapidly growing body of literature documents the effect of extreme heat on a range of demographic and health outcomes. In this context, migration and mortality have received ample attention. However, our understanding of how extreme heat affects fertility, maternal, and infant health remains limited, although these outcomes shape population dynamics and health in important ways. Poorly understood also remain the mechanisms underlying the relationships between extreme heat and demographic and health outcomes. Such mechanisms could be both biological and behavioral, but are difficult to disentangle because they are usually not directly observed in demographic data sources. In this talk, I present findings from three empirical studies on the effect of extreme heat on antenatal care utilization, sex ratios at birth, and infant mortality in low- and middle-income countries. I propose strategies for identifying mechanisms and reflect on data linkage, measurement, and statistical modelling challenges that arise in the identification of temperature impacts across a range of populations and geographic settings. Together, these studies demonstrate that extreme heat is relevant for understanding maternal behavior during pregnancy and can lead to substantial and unequal selection in the prenatal period. The findings have implications for maternal health, offspring health, gender discriminatory behavior, and population composition in the context of climate change.

The Sociology Seminar Series for Trinity Term is convened by Jasmin Abdel Ghany and Nontokozo Langwenya. For more information about this or any of the seminars in the series, please contact sociology.secretary@nuffield.ox.ac.uk.