# Equity and Climate Opportunities for Health (ECO-Health) Center: Research Project 1

> **NIH NIH P20** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO · 2024 · $1,313,925

## Abstract

ABSTRACT (RESEARCH PROJECT)
Extreme heat and wildfire smoke events are projected to increase in frequency. They are currently impacting
health in California and around the world; however, health effects of co-occurring extreme heat and high-
intensity wildfire smoke at the same time are understudied. Disproportionately impacted communities are the
most exposed to these climate-sensitive events, the most sensitive to their adverse effects, and the least likely
to have the economic, social, or political resources necessary to prepare for or recover from such events.
Inequities in exposures translate to inequities in health, and we will approach this climate health challenge with
data-driven and community-engaged strategies to understand and mitigate exposures in highly impacted
communities. We propose to investigate, in the broadest and largest study to date, the impact of co-occurring
heat waves and wildfire smoke on health effects across the life course including pregnancy outcomes,
infectious diseases, respiratory conditions, and cardiovascular disease. Selected health outcomes will include
low birth weight, preterm birth, and gestational hypertension (pregnancy), healthcare utilization, lower
respiratory tract infections (LRTI), and asthma (pediatric), and healthcare utilization, LRTI, asthma, chronic
obstructive lung disease, myocardial infarction, and heart failure (adult). We will investigate how these
relationships may be modified by multiple social and structural conditions at the small-scale level including the
built environment and insecurities in material needs like food, housing, income, and healthcare. We will identify
promising social and structural factors to model and target for intervention design and build upon community-
partnered work to mitigate exposures and health effects attributable to extreme heat and wildfire smoke
events. Our multidisciplinary team of climate scientists with clinical, environmental, and epidemiological
expertise will collaborate to identify climate-related vulnerabilities in the structural and social context in
disproportionately impacted communities that can be translated into equitable solutions for health through
community-collaborative research partnerships. Our aims are to: 1) Examine health effects of co-occurring
extreme heat and wildfire smoke exposure by social and structural factors (e.g., the built environment and
insecurities in material needs like food, housing, income, and healthcare) across California at the zip code
level; 2) Simulate the impact of community-preferred and modifiable social and structural mitigation scenarios
on health effects during co-occurring extreme heat and wildfire smoke exposure and present to community
partners; and 3) Co-design and prototype social and structural interventions to mitigate the health effects of co-
occurring extreme heat and wildfire smoke exposure. Our research project will provide the ECO-Health Center
with integrated large-scale climate and he...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10983046
- **Project number:** 1P20MD019994-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO
- **Principal Investigator:** Neeta Thakur
- **Activity code:** P20 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $1,313,925
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-09-21 → 2027-09-20

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10983046

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10983046, Equity and Climate Opportunities for Health (ECO-Health) Center: Research Project 1 (1P20MD019994-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10983046. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*