Publications

Our publications include peer-reviewed journal articles, conference papers, and HIGH Horizons project deliverables for the EU.

Indicators & data analyses of impact of heat on maternal, newborn and child health

• Brimicombe C, Jackson D, Mung’atia A, Sulaiman Z, Monthaler T, Wieser K, Otto IM; HIGH Horizons Study Group. The influence of heat exposure on birth and neonatal outcomes in Mombasa, Kenya: a pooled time series analysis. The Journal of Climate Change and Health. 2025. 100409. doi:10.1016/j.joclim.2024.100409
  
• Charvalis G, Koureas M, Brimicombe C, Bogogiannidou C, Kalala F, Mouchtouri V, Hadjichristodoulou C; HIGH Horizons Study Group. Daily time series of 12 human thermal stress indices in Greece, aggregated at commune level (1998–2022). Data in Brief. 2025. doi:10.1016/j.dib.2024.111264
  
• Lakhoo DP, Brink N, Radebe L, Craig MH, Pham MD, Haghighi MM, Wise A, Solarin I, Luchters S, Maimela G, Chersich MF; Heat-Health Study Group; HIGH Horizons Study Group. A systematic review and meta-analysis of heat exposure impacts on maternal, fetal and neonatal health. Nat Med. 2024. doi: 10.1038/s41591-024-03395-8
  
• Brimicombe C, Conway F, Portela A, Lakhoo D, Roos N, Gao C, et al. A scoping review on heat indices used to measure the effects of heat on maternal and perinatal health. BMJ Public Health. 2024;2:e000308. doi: 10.1136/bmjph-2023-000308
  
• Brink N, Lakhoo DP, Solarin I, et al. Impacts of heat exposure in utero on long-term health and social outcomes: a systematic review. BMC Pregnancy Childbirth. 2024;24(1):344. Published 2024 May 4. doi:10.1186/s12884-024-06512-0
  
• Brimicombe C, Wieser K, Monthaler T, Jackson D, De Bont J, Chersich MF, Otto IM. Effects of ambient heat exposure on risk of all-cause mortality in children younger than 5 years in Africa: a pooled time-series analysis. The Lancet Planetary Health. 2024. doi: 10.1016/S2542-5196(24)00160-8
  
• Project Deliverable: Brimicombe C, Wieser K, Otto I, Chersich M, Mpondo F, Roos N, et al. HIGH Horizons – Report on Environmental and Health Databases 1. Zenodo; 2024 Jul.
  
• Project Deliverable: Brimicombe C, Wieser K, Monthaler T, Otto IM, Part C, Jackson D, et al. HIGH Horizons – Heat-health analysis report from Greek, Italian, Swedish and African data 1. Zenodo; 2024 Jul.
  
• Project Deliverable: Part C, Brimicombe C, Roos N, HIGH Horizons Study Group. HIGH Horizons – Protocol for population level heat-health impact study in Greece, Italy, Kenya, South Africa and Sweden. Zenodo; 2024.
  
• Report of a scoping meeting for the selection of indicators to monitor the impact of extreme heat on maternal, newborn and child health, Geneva, Switzerland, 24-25 April 2023. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2024. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO

Early Warning System for pregnant and postpartum women and infants

• Brimicombe C, Gao C, Otto IM. Vulnerable to heat stress: gaps in international standard metric thresholds. Int J Biometeorol. Published online September 20, 2024. doi:10.1007/s00484-024-02783-6
  
• Brimicombe C, Runkle JD, Tuholske C, Domeisen DIV, Gao C, Toftum J, et al. Preventing heat-related deaths: The urgent need for a global early warning system for heat. PLOS Clim. 3(7): e0000437. doi: 10.1371/journal.pclm.0000437
  
• Gao C, Heil C, Brimicombe C, van der Sanden K, Kingma B, Portela A. Heat Health Warning Thresholds for Pregnant and Postpartum Women, Infants and Young Children and Health Workers. In: The 20th International Conference on Environmental Ergonomics 2024, Book of Abstracts. Jeju, Republic of Korea: Zenodo; 2024. p. 222–3.
  
• Project Deliverable: Gao C, Heil C, Portela A, Brimicombe C, HIGH Horizons Study Group. HIGH Horizons – Report on predictive heat warning thresholds. Zenodo; 2024 Jul.
  
• Project Deliverable: Lange I, Solarin I, Scorgie F, Machingura F, Roos N, HIGH Horizons Study Group. HIGH Horizons – Report on the development of messages for pregnant and post-partum women for the early warning system ClimApp-MCH. Zenodo; 2024 Jul.
  
• Project Deliverable: Gao C, Alce G, van der Sanden K, Kingma B, HIGH Horizons Study Group. HIGH Horizons – ClimApp-MCH prototype: An early warning system app for pregnant and postpartum women, infants and young children, and health workers. Zenodo; 2024 Aug.
  
• Project Deliverable: Gao C, Heil C, Eggeling J, Alce G, Luchters S, Machingura F, et al. HIGH Horizons – Protocol for testing of the EWS among pregnant and postpartum women, young children and health workers. Zenodo; 2024 Aug.

Adaptation interventions to reduce heat impact on health workers

• Project Deliverable: Toftum J, Sode Vest A, Mahdi-Waldorff A, Muronzie T, Luchters S, Parker C, et al. HIGH Horizons – Environmental exposures in health facilities. Zenodo; 2024 Jul.

Mitigation interventions to reduce health facility carbon emissions

• Project Deliverable: Luchters S, Machingura F, Muparamoto N, Tsvaki J, Chersich M, Parker C, et al. HIGH Horizons – Report on the tool for modelling of alternative mitigation interventions: Development of a resource allocation tool for carbon mitigation interventions in healthcare facilities (CARBOMICA). Zenodo; 2024 Jul.
  
• Project Deliverable: Luchters S, Muronzie T, Tsvaki J, Maimela G, Parker C, Chersich M, et al. HIGH Horizons – Protocol for mitigation interventions evaluation in Kenya, South Africa and Zimbabwe. Zenodo; 2024 Jul.
  
• Project Deliverable: Sulaiman Z, Mung’atia A, Maimela G, Parker C, Chersich M, Luchters S, et al. HIGH Horizons – Report on the carbon emission assessment of selected health facilities in Kenya, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. Zenodo; 2024 Jul.
  
• HIGH Horizons Consortium. CARBOMICA: a carbon mitigation and resource allocation modelling tool for the healthcare sector in East Africa. COP28 Prospectus of Climate-Health Solutions. 2023. Published on the WHO / WMO ClimaHealth website.

Biomarkers of heat impacts on maternal, newborn and child health

• Project Deliverable: Mouchtouri V, Koureas M, Kyritsi M, Kalala F, Speletas M, Hadjichristodoulou C, et al. HIGH Horizons – Study Initiation Package for the prospective mother-child birth cohort study of the effect of heat exposure on health, Greece. Zenodo; 2024 Jul.

Other Publications

• Machingura F. Navigating the health frontiers of Africa’s climate challenge. Nat Med. Published online June 24, 2024. doi:10.1038/s41591-024-03061-z
  
• Project Deliverable: Luchters S, Kerstens B, HIGH Horizons Study Group. HIGH Horizons – Data management plan (year 1). Zenodo; 2024 Aug.