Article series focuses on extreme weather adaptations and their impact on public health
January/February 2026 | Volume 25 Number 1
Photo courtesy of NIEHS
The collection of articles focuses on extreme weather and other topics relevant to the health of LMIC residents
The journal
Annals of Global Health has published a special collection of articles to showcase how community-based adaptation strategies in the face of extreme weather events are impacting public health outcomes globally.
Lessons from the field: Case studies to advance research on climate adaptation strategies and their impact on public health comprises 14 original research articles and an editorial. The collection captures multiple extreme weather adaptation strategies deployed in low resource settings and how these tactics impact public health.
This collection aims to highlight research across various geographies, environmental stressors, and adaptation strategies. Five case studies are from Africa (Chad, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, and Nigeria), four from Asia (Federated States of Micronesia [FSM], India, Pakistan, and Thailand), and five from Latin America and the Caribbean (Brazil, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, and multiple small island nations in the Caribbean). There are surveys of various environmental stressors, including drought and extreme weather events (as seen in Ethiopia, Brazil, and Mexico) and excessive rain and high heat stress (as seen in Madagascar, Kenya, Thailand, and the Caribbean islands). Distinct population categories investigated in these studies include pregnant women, coastal residents, agricultural workers, hospital patients, pastoralists, older adults, and children.
Primarily, the collection aims to build a solutions-oriented science focused on the health threats posed by extreme weather events, while increasing the visibility of local adaptation research already underway in many low resource settings around the world.
Adaptation strategies highlighted
One of the central issues addressed by this special collection is the disproportionate impact of extreme weather events on the health and wellness of populations in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Current health systems, which often lack preparedness and policy frameworks, remain inadequate. While adaptation strategies have been (and continue to be) developed and proposed to prepare for climate impacts, the scientific evidence base is limited and too often driven by high-income country researchers. Examples of these adaptation strategies include heat resistant crops, behavioral changes, green infrastructure, wetland restoration, coastal land preservation, microfinancing, and effective awareness-building and communication.
Overall, more scientific investigations are needed to understand how adaptation strategies can be deployed to address deteriorating health outcomes. And, ideally, LMIC scientists, who offer unique insights and contributions due to their first-hand experience of the investigated issues, will lead research activities in their countries or, at the very least, participate in those studies.
Adaptation strategies often fail to focus on public health concerns, resulting in a lack of actionable strategies for vulnerable populations, observe the authors of an editorial accompanying the collection. For example, population health research examining chronic health effects of altered environmental conditions remain scarce. Yet sharing lessons learned is always crucial. The hope, then, is this special collection will stimulate a cross fertilization of ideas that will help accelerate adaptation solutions for improving health outcomes at local, national, regional and global levels.
This collection was commissioned by Fogarty International Center and led in collaboration with Dr. Praveen Kumar, a former NIH-scholar and an associate professor based at the Boston College School of Social Work; it received additional support from the NIH Health and Extreme Weather (HEW) initiative.
HEW’s Research Coordinating Center is CAFÉ, which brings together stakeholders across government, NGOs, industry, researchers, and funders. CAFÉ—an NIH-supported initiative of the Boston University School of Public Health and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health—works toward building a global Community of Practice to advance extreme weather and health research.
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More information
Updated February 13, 2026
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