# Causal Mechanisms for Sustainable Adaptation to Adverse Heat and Precipitation Health Effects

> **NIH NIH R00** · UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR · 2021 · $234,044

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Globally, extreme-heat and extreme-precipitation events have a large impact on human health. Adaptation to
climate change is a national priority in light of the National Climate Assessment’s findings of significant climate-
change-related health burdens among the most disadvantaged populations. This persistent and growing public
health problem is especially concerning given the following: increasing temperatures and extreme-heat and
extreme-precipitation events with climate change; increasing numbers of elderly individuals in the U.S.
population; and increasing urbanization. Adaptation and intervention strategies must be informed by high
quality science. However, research in this area to date is limited by a lack of fine spatial resolution data on the
full range of factors that play into climate change vulnerability, including: health outcomes ranging from illness
to death; patient characteristics; temperature and precipitation exposures; and environmental and housing
information. Additionally, the experiences of affected communities and the usability of research products,
including vulnerability maps, are not always integrated into the research process, nor is research always
adequately translated into actions to reduce adverse effects of heat, particularly for vulnerable populations.
This project will fill knowledge gaps through analysis of a novel dataset with finely resolved information
informed by community knowledge and policy needs. Dr. Gronlund will identify how pre-existing health
conditions, housing characteristics and air pollution increase vulnerability to extreme heat mortality,
hospitalization and emergency room visits, using data from 6 U.S. cities. She will link mortality records and
Medicare records in each city to a fine-scale model of daily temperature exposure and publicly available
housing data. Data and statistical methods will allow her to study these potential vulnerability characteristics at
the level of both the individual and the neighborhood. She will account for competing effects between mortality
and morbidity events and examine how socioeconomic disparities in heat health effects are mediated, or
explained, by more direct mechanisms such as housing quality and pre-existing health conditions. Based on
this information, she will generate heat risk scores for each neighborhood in the six cities and map these risks.
She will also identify how housing age, as a proxy for plumbing quality, modifies associations between
precipitation and gastrointestinal hospitalization and emergency room visits. In Detroit, MI, she will also engage
with the community at each step of the research process in a participatory, co-educational manner that will
ensure that her specific research questions will both incorporate the knowledge and address relevant needs of
local community members and officials involved in climate adaptation planning. Dr. Gronlund has background
in epidemiologic research on the health effects...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10094057
- **Project number:** 5R00ES026198-05
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR
- **Principal Investigator:** Carina Gronlund
- **Activity code:** R00 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $234,044
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-02-15 → 2023-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10094057

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10094057, Causal Mechanisms for Sustainable Adaptation to Adverse Heat and Precipitation Health Effects (5R00ES026198-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10094057. Licensed CC0.

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