B4773 - Uncovering social and biological mechanisms between heat and mental health in pregnancy and across early life - 19/12/2024

B number: 
B4773
Principal applicant name: 
Kate Tilling | Bristol University (UK)
Co-applicants: 
Professor Dan Bernie, Dr Jo Newbury, Dr Eunice Lo, Professor Rachael Gooberman-Hill, Professor Golam Khandaker, Dr Sinead English, dr Chin Yang Shapland
Title of project: 
Uncovering social and biological mechanisms between heat and mental health in pregnancy and across early life
Proposal summary: 

Adult mental health is different depending on the season in which someone is born, which suggests that heat during pregnancy might affect later life mental health. While there is already lots of research into how mental health conditions can be influenced by difficult events in their earlier life, the long-term effects of heatwave exposure on anxiety and depression in mothers and their children are not yet well understood. This is in part because of the challenging data required to understand this better. For example you would need to do long studies over time across big groups of people.For this research proposal, we want to understand what social and biological factors related to heat exposure at early life and during pregnancy can lead to anxiety and depression in pregnant mothers and their children.

Impact of research: 
We hope that our findings will shed light on whether there needs to be different guidelines and definitions of an impactful “heatwave” for pregnant women, or small children, or particular subgroups. Another will be to provide recommendations to support people during heatwaves, based on the results we find about how heat acts – e.g. to provide air conditioning at night for pregnant women during a heatwave, if sleep is issues are found to link to poor mental health in pregnant people.. It is crucially important to study pregnant women (who are often neglected in other research studies). The enduring effect on mental health means that early interventions can have huge impact (ie not just immediate but later).
Date proposal received: 
Friday, 6 December, 2024
Date proposal approved: 
Tuesday, 10 December, 2024
Keywords: 
Mental health - Psychology, Psychiatry, Cognition, Mental health, Statistical methods, Cohort studies - attrition, bias, participant engagement, ethics