- november 2012 phfi research updates
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Climate Change and Health Preparedness in India: Protecting Local Communities in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India from Extreme Heat
Heat waves in Ahmedabad – one of the fastest-growing cities
in India – are becoming increasingly deadly, exacerbated by
climate change. The Public Health Foundation of India,
Indian Institute of Public Health, Gandhinagar, and Natural
Resources Defense Council are working with city officials and
the health care sector to protect people from Ahmedabad’s
rising temperatures.
Various extremes of weather due to the effects of climate
change have been predicted and observed to be happening
with some regularity. Of these extreme weather events -
spells of extreme heat and cold, the heat spells are more
likely to occur than cold. Many of the heat related
morbidities and mortalities could be due to its direct and
indirect effects. While the direct effects include heat stress,
heat exhaustion and heat stroke, the indirect effects occur
when heat is an underlying cause of other mortalities and
morbidities. Thus, both higher than average temperatures
and more frequent and severe extreme heat events can lead
to higher risk of mortality and morbidity.
Cities and urban areas are more vulnerable due to the
phenomenon of the urban heat island effect, where the
temperatures in the urban areas have been found to be
higher than those outside the city limits. Urban
microclimates too have a role in higher urban temperatures,
and this provides opportunities for city municipalities to
implement specific and targeted actions to mitigate the
impacts of rising temperatures. In the past numerous spells
of extreme heat / heat waves have occurred in different
parts of the world, and some have been documented to be
associated with a massive number of deaths, such as those in
various parts of Europe, Chicago and California. The 4X4
report predicts increasing temperatures for India.
Ahmedabad experienced a heat wave in 2010 in which
hundreds of people died. For the future, projection studies
have been done which show the impact of climate change on
summer heat related premature deaths.
Noting these evidences, some countries have instituted
prevention strategies and preparedness plans to minimize
the human costs. These include best practices for city
municipalities and workplace health promotion strategies.
IIPHG, in partnership with NRDC, is also working with the city
government of Ahmedabad to implement a series of
measures to protect the people of the city from rising
temperatures.
Using qualitative vulnerability assessments, community
surveys, and focus-group-based workshops with the
municipal government and health care workers, we have
identified the most heat-vulnerable populations. Ongoing
qualitative and quantitative efforts are focused on
developing targeted climate change adaptation strategies to
enhance these groups’ resilience in the face of extreme heat.
Initial results indicate the groups most vulnerable to heat
waves include slum communities, the elderly, newborns, and
outdoor workers. Quantitative assessment indicates an
excess of total mortality and ambulance calls during heat
waves in Ahmedabad.
The project’s priority is to reduce heat-related health
vulnerabilities and implement an early health warning
system for future dangerous heat events. The early health
warning system for extreme heat events – the first of its kind
in India – is now being developed for a proposed launch
before the beginning of Ahmedabad’s summer season in
2013. For more information on the climate change and
health preparedness project, contact Gulrez Shah Azhar,
Senior Lecturer ([email protected]).
PHFI Research Updates Monthly Newsletter
Vol. 1, Issue 10, November 2012
Project activities including vulnerability assessment of slum
communities in Ahmedabad
Acharya, A, Vellakkal, S, Taylor, F, Masset, E, Satija, A, Burke,
M, Ebrahim, S. The impact of health insurance schemes for
the informal sector in low- and middle-income countries: A
systematic review. The World Bank Research Observer.
2012.
Agrawal, P, Agrawal, S. Obesity and reproductive health among Indian women. Journal of Society and Communication. 2012; 1:38-68.
Arrow, KJ, Danzon, PM, Gelband, H, Jamison, D, Laxminarayan, R, Mills, A, Mwabu, G, Panosian, C, Peto, R, White, NJ. The Affordable Medicines Facility-malaria: Killing it slowly. Lancet. 2012.
Bhan, N, Srivastava, S, Agrawal, S, Subramanyam, M, Millett,
C, Selvaraj, S, Subramanian, SV. Are socioeconomic
disparities in tobacco consumption increasing in India? A
repeated cross-sectional multilevel analysis. BMJ Open 2012;
2:e001348.
Babu GR [letter] Evidence for health policy in India: Do we
have enough data? Journal of Royal Society of Medicine.
2012 September; 105:365.
Channon, AA, Andrade, MV, Noronha, K, Leone, T, Dilip, TR. Inpatient care of the elderly in Brazil and India: Assessing social inequalities. Soc Sci Med. 2012; 75:2394-402.
Devasenapathy, N, Neogi, SB, Zodpey, SP. Is intravenous iron sucrose the treatment of choice for pregnant anemic women? J Obstet Gynaecol Res. 2012.
Dhillon, PK, Kenfield, SA, Stampfer, MJ, Giovannucci, EL, Chan, JM. Aspirin use after a prostate cancer diagnosis and cancer survival in a prospective cohort. Cancer Prev Res (Phila). 2012; 5:1223-8.
Downs, SM, Thow, AM, Ghosh-Jerath, S, McNab, J, Reddy, KS, Leeder, SR. From Denmark to Delhi: The multisectoral challenge of regulating trans fats in India. Public Health Nutr. 2012.
Gurbel, PA, Erlinge, D, Ohman, EM, Neely, B, Neely, M, Goodman, SG, Huber, K, Chan, MY, Cornel, JH, Brown, E, Zhou, C, Jakubowski, JA, White, HD, Fox, KA, Prabhakaran, D, et al. Platelet function during extended prasugrel and clopidogrel therapy for patients with ACS treated without revascularization: The TRILOGY ACS platelet function substudy. JAMA. 2012; 308:1785-94.
Kumar, GA, Dilip, TR, Dandona, L, Dandona, R. Burden of
out-of-pocket expenditure for road traffic injuries in urban India. BMC Health Serv Res. 2012; 12:285.
Laxminarayan, R, Arrow, K, Jamison, D, Bloom, BR. Public health. From financing to fevers: Lessons of an antimalarial subsidy program. Science. 2012; 338:615-6.
Madhu, R. Prioritizing research on multi-stakeholder
approach to improve physical activity among adolescents in
India. Global Journal of Medical and Public Health. 2012;
1:1-2.
Madhu, R, Beinum, A. A systematic review of community
hand washing interventions leading to changes in hygiene
behavior in the developing world. Global Journal of Medical
and Public Health. 2012; 1:49-56.
Malhotra, S, Zodpey, SP, Chandra, S, Vashist, RP, Satyanaryana, S, Zachariah, R, et al. Should sputum smear examination be carried out at the end of the intensive phase and end of treatment in sputum smear negative pulmonary TB patients? Plos One. 2012 Nov;7(11): e49238. Mathur, MR, Chaman, P, Bose, V. E-networks for improving
public health education and practice in low and middle
income countries: Introduction public health global network.
Global Journal of Medical and Public Health. 2012; 1:56-8.
Nair, M, Ariana, P, Webster, P. What influences the decision to undergo institutional delivery by skilled birth attendants? A cohort study in rural Andhra Pradesh, India. Rural and Remote Health 12: 2311. Nair, M, Webster, P. Health professionals' migration in emerging market economies: Patterns, causes and possible solutions. J Public Health. 2012 Oct.
Prasad, M. Quick Response (QR) Code to promote library
services: An introduction. Journal of Library and
Information Science. 2012; 37(1): 1-9.
Prasad, M, Reddy, SHK. An Analysis of research in Mental
Retardation in India. IASLIC Bulletin. 2012; 57(2):89-101.
Rafiq, S, Venkata, KK, Gupta, V, Guru, VD, Spurgeon, CJ, Parameshwaran, S, Madana, SN, Kinra, S, Bowen, L, Timpson, NJ, Smith, GD, Dudbridge, F, Prabhakaran, D, Ben-Shlomo, Y, Reddy, KS, Ebrahim, S, Chandak, GR. Evaluation of seven common lipid associated loci in a large Indian sib pair study. Lipids Health Dis. 2012; 11:155.
Recent Publications & Grants 2
Publications
Rao, KD, Bhatnagar, A, Berman, P. So many, yet few: Human
resources for health in India. Hum Resour Health. 2012;
10:19.
Reddy, KS, for the GHME conference organising committee. Global health metrics and evaluation: A call for abstracts. The Lancet. 2012; 380:1722.
Sadhu, G, Chakravarty, N. Gender mainstreaming in water management. International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications. 2012; 2(11).
Sathyanarayana, TN, Babu, GR, Kadam, S. Barriers, challenges and possible solutions in establishing Diabetes Self-Management Education (DSME) in India: A policy perspective. International Journal of User-Driven Healthcare. 2012; 2(3), 1-8
Schneider, J, Kumar, R, Dandona, R, Kumar, P, Kumar, A,
Lakshmi, V, Laumann, E, Mayer, K, Dandona, L. Social
network and risk-taking behavior most associated with rapid
HIV testing, circumcision, and pre exposure prophylaxis
acceptability among high-risk Indian men. AIDS Patient Care
STDS. 2012; 26:631-40.
Selvaraj, S, Hasan, H. Draft drug price policy 2011: Legitimising unaffordable medicine prices? Econ Polit Wkly. 2012; 47:13-7.
Selvaraj, S, Subramanian, SV. Financial risk protection and chronic disease care. Indian J Med Res. 2012; 136:544-6.
Sidney, K, de Costa, A, Diwan, V, Mavalankar, DV, Smith, H.
An evaluation of two large scale demand side financing
programs for maternal health in India: The MATIND study
protocol. BMC Public Health. 2012; 12:699.
Sharma, K, Zodpey, SP, Gaidhane, A, Syed, ZQ, Kumar, R, Morgan, A. Designing the framework for competency-based master of public health programs in India. J Public Health Manag Pract. 2013; 19:30-9.
Funded Proposals
Pensions, health and wellbeing of older people in low and middle income countries: Insights from the WHO SAGE survey | Co-PI: Sutapa Agrawal | ESRC Secondary Data Analysis Initiative Grant
Harm reduction approach for non-injectors in injectors' sexual network: An exploratory study from selected regions of Manipur | PI: Aruna Bhattacharya | Wellcome Trust Reproductive health, nutritional status, and macroeconomic
shocks: A multi-level, quasi-natural experimental analysis of
food commodity price fluctuations | Co-PI: Shah Ebrahim |
ESRC, NWO-WOTRO, PRB, RCN
Comparison of fiscal and regulatory policies to prevent non-communicable diseases in India | PI: Shah Ebrahim and Sukumar Vellakkal | IDRC, Canada
State of India’s Newborns (SOIN) report | PI: Sutapa B Neogi | Save the Children, US
Editorial Team
Giridhar Babu is the Editor in Chief for the Internet Journal of
Epidemiology. Giridhar received his doctorate from
University of California Los Angeles in September 2012.
Thursday Research Seminar | 4-5 pm
Dec 06 - Santanu Pramanik (PHFI): Small Area Estimation: General concept, basic methodology and some applications in the context of public health Dec 13 – Prema Ramachandran (Nutrition Foundation of India): Dual nutrition burden: Challenge or opportunity? Dec 20 – Arpita Ghosh (PHFI): TBA
*Information courtesy of PHFI, IIPHs Program/Research Coordinating Teams
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Open Access Articles
Infant and Child Mortality in India – Levels, Trends and Determinants http://www.unicef.org/india/Report.pdf
Estimation of Newborn Risk for Child or Adolescent
Obesity: Lessons from Longitudinal Birth Cohorts
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2
Fjournal.pone.0049919
Workshops/Trainings (December-January 2013)
Dec 6-8 - Writing a Research Proposal (IIPH-D) Dec 11-14 - Qualitative Data Analysis using Atlas ti- (IIPH-D) Dec 18-21 - Designing and Analysis of Cluster Randomized Trials- (IIPH-D) Dec 24-28 - Operational Research in Reproductive Health- Bangalore (IIPH-D) Jan 7-11 -Scientific Writing for AYUSH Professionals (IIPH-D)
BLOGROLL
Research Methods Super course
http://www.pitt.edu/~super1/ResearchMethods/index1.htm Multiple Datasets from Developing Countries http://ipl.econ.duke.edu/dthomas/dev_data/inde
x.html
Global Environmental Health Newsletter
http://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/programs/geh
/geh_newsletter/index.cfm
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Research Support
Do you have any reports, manuscripts, or proposals which require editing? Send your working draft to Swati Lal, Grants Coordinator ([email protected]).
Are you in the process of submitting a grant? Please contact, Swati Lal, Grants Coordinator ([email protected]).
Do you need to download a journal article? Send the complete bibliographic reference to Sheetal Rawat, Assistant Librarian ([email protected]).
Did you recently publish a research article? Please send the bibliographic reference and PDF to Kumar Dheeraj, Database Manager ([email protected]).
For assistance in exploring and pursuing ongoing and potential funding, please contact Alka Chadha, Projects Development Coordinator ([email protected]).
For inquiries or submissions to the PHFI-Institutional Ethics Committee, please contact Melina Magsumbol, Senior Research Fellow ([email protected]).
Air pollution drives up autism risk
http://www.futurity.org/health-medicine/air-
pollution-drives-up-autism-risk/
High fructose corn syrup linked to global diabetes
http://www.futurity.org/health-medicine/high-
fructose-corn-syrup-linked-to-global-diabetes/
Sleep gets better as waistlines shrink
http://www.futurity.org/health-medicine/sleep-
gets-better-as-waistlines-shrink/
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