Using a second National Institutes of Health grant awarded this year, health promotion, education, and behavior assistant professor Leila Larson will examine the factors influencing childhood development from yet another angle: weather. With nearly $400,000 in funding support, Larson will examine the direct and indirect effects of extreme weather events – from extreme heat, precipitation, and drought to hurricanes, cyclones, and other storms – on pediatric health.
“We already know that extreme heat, drought, flooding, and storms negatively affect Gross Domestic Product, food supply and agricultural productivity, as well as population health outcomes related to mortality, birthweight, childhood malnutrition, and growth,” Larson says. “But we don’t know much about potential effects of weather-related events on child physical health, mental health, and development. Early childhood is an especially important time because the first few years of life are a critical period for physical and brain development that sets the foundation for lifelong learning, health and wellbeing.”
In the U.S. alone, 1.2 million children under the age of five have poor overall health. These suboptimal beginnings leave them vulnerable to long-term challenges, such as poor physical and mental health and lack of school readiness. Researchers like Larson have already identified many of the drivers of these outcomes, including limited health care access, lack of responsive caregiving (e.g., responsive interactions and age-appropriate early learning opportunities), and poor nutrition.
“These co-occurring conditions negatively affect pediatric health and, in turn, worsen the growing health disparities across the country,” Larson says. “Poor child health and development may be even further exacerbated by extreme weather events, which threaten to disproportionately affect children who are already at risk.”
UNICEF and other global organizations have classified extreme weather as a child’s rights crisis that puts them at risk of poor health and developmental delays. There are also important economic costs. In the U.S., nearly 300 weather disasters surpassed $1 billion in costs each between 1980 and 2024. Americans experienced 28 billion-dollar disasters in 2023 alone.
In response to a limited understanding of how extreme weather events may impact pediatric health and development outcomes, this study will use a big data approach to analyze the direct and indirect (e.g., through caregiver physical and mental health, caregiving practices, etc.) influence of extreme weather on children’s health and development across all 50 states and Washington D.C. Since the 1950s, the U.S. has collected information related to weather and health, and these large data sets present a unique opportunity for assessing short- and long-term impacts of extreme weather events. With the help of USC’s affiliation with the Federal Research Data Center, Larson and her team will access and use restricted U.S. Census microdata for their analyses. The study team will share their findings with lawmakers, scientists, public health officials and community members.
The results of this study will improve how scientists, policy makers, and health officials understand the effects of extreme weather on pediatric health, including critical mediators that explain indirect paths. The analyses will also set the stage for future studies that assess the influence of extreme weather on these and other health outcomes (e.g., maternal, neonatal, adolescent) in other parts of the world.