Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) and adverse pregnancy outcomes in Ahvaz, Iran

Khodadadi, Narges; Dastoorpoor, Maryam; Khanjani, Narges; Ghasemi, Afsaneh

doi:10.1186/s12978-022-01344-7

Cited by 19 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 60 publications

(78 reference statements)

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“…19 Four of only five studies conducted in LMICs have been recently published. [20][21][22][23][24] Nyadanu et al 24 explored the impact of heat stress (defined by the Universal Thermal Climate Index, UTCI) on 5 961 328 births in Ghana from 2012 to 2020. Exposure to the 90th centile of UTCI versus the median (30.8°C vs. 28.8°C), for the whole of pregnancy, resulted in an 18% (95% CI 2%-36%) increased risk of stillbirth.…”

Section: E N V Ironm E N Ta L Te M Per At U R E a N D Sti L L Birth: ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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An expert review of environmental heat exposure and stillbirth in the face of climate change: Clinical implications and priority issues

Bonell

Part

Okomo

et al. 2023

BJOG

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Exposure to extreme heat in pregnancy increases the risk of stillbirth. Progress in reducing stillbirth rates has stalled, and populations are increasingly exposed to high temperatures and climate events that may further undermine health strategies. This narrative review summarises the current clinical and epidemiological evidence of the impact of maternal heat exposure on stillbirth risk. Out of 20 studies, 19 found an association between heat and stillbirth risk. Recent studies based in low‐ to middle‐income countries and tropical settings add to the existing literature to demonstrate that all populations are at risk. Additionally, both short‐term heat exposure and whole‐pregnancy heat exposure increase the risk of stillbirth. A definitive threshold of effect has not been identified, as most studies define exposure as above the 90th centile of the usual temperature for that population. Therefore, the association between heat and stillbirth has been found with exposures from as low as >12.64°C up to >46.4°C. The pathophysiological pathways by which maternal heat exposure may lead to stillbirth, based on human and animal studies, include both placental and embryonic or fetal impacts. Although evidence gaps remain and further research is needed to characterise these mechanistic pathways in more detail, preliminary evidence suggests epigenetic changes, alteration in imprinted genes, congenital abnormalities, reduction in placental blood flow, size and function all play a part. Finally, we explore this topic from a public health perspective; we discuss and evaluate the current public health guidance on minimising the risk of extreme heat in the community. There is limited pregnancy‐specific guidance within heatwave planning, and no evidence‐based interventions have been established to prevent poor pregnancy outcomes. We highlight priority research questions to move forward in the field and specifically note the urgent need for evidence‐based interventions that are sustainable.

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Section: E N V Ironm E N Ta L Te M Per At U R E a N D Sti L L Birth: ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Four of only five studies conducted in LMICs have been recently published 20–24 . Nyadanu et al 24 explored the impact of heat stress (defined by the Universal Thermal Climate Index, UTCI) on 5 961 328 births in Ghana from 2012 to 2020.…”

Section: Environmental Temperature and Stillbirth: Epidemiological Ev...mentioning

confidence: 99%

An expert review of environmental heat exposure and stillbirth in the face of climate change: Clinical implications and priority issues

Bonell

Part

Okomo

et al. 2023

BJOG

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“…5,6 Stillbirths, a neglected tragedy, are again mainly felt in low-to middle-income countries, with increasing rates and have also been linked to extreme heat exposure. 7 The impact of heat on pregnancy depends on the intensity, duration, and exposure window. First-trimester exposure leads to increased embryonic death, and cardiac and neurologic anomalies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Triggers for preterm labor are complex and multifactorial, but recent environmental epidemiologic studies demonstrate that maternal exposure to extreme heat increases the risk of PTB 5,6 . Stillbirths, a neglected tragedy, are again mainly felt in low‐ to middle‐income countries, with increasing rates and have also been linked to extreme heat exposure 7 …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A feasibility study of the use of UmbiFlow™ to assess the impact of heat stress on fetoplacental blood flow in field studies

Bonell

Vannevel

Sonko

et al. 2022

Intl J Gynecology & Obste

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Objective: To evaluate the use of UmbiFlow™ in field settings to assess the impact of heat stress on umbilical artery resistance index (RI).Methods: This feasibility study was conducted in West Kiang, The Gambia, West Africa; a rural area with increasing exposure to extreme heat. We recruited women with singleton fetuses who performed manual tasks (such as farming) during pregnancy to an observational cohort study. The umbilical artery RI was measured at rest, and during and at the end of a typical working shift in women at 28 weeks or more of pregnancy. Adverse pregnancy outcomes (APO) were classified as stillbirth, preterm birth, low birth weight, or small for gestational age, and all other outcomes as normal.Results: A total of 40 participants were included; 23 normal births and 17 APO.Umbilical artery RI demonstrated a nonlinear relationship to heat stress, with indication of a potential threshold value for placental insufficiency at 32°C by universal thermal climate index and 30°C by wet bulb globe temperature. Conclusions:The Umbiflow device proved to be an effective field method for assessing placental function. Dynamic changes in RI may begin to explain the association between extreme heat and APO with an identified threshold of effect.

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Modeling on Outdoor Thermal Comfort in Traditional Residential Neighborhoods in Beijing Based on GAN

Gong,

Huang,

Huang

et al. 2024

Computational Design and Robotic Fabrication

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With the support of new urban science and technology, the bottom-up and human-centered space quality research has become the key to delicacy urban governance, of which the Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) have a severe influence. However, in the studies of actual UTCI, datasets are mostly obtained from on-site measurement data or simulation data, which is costly and ineffective. So, how to efficiently and rapidly conduct a large-scale and fine-grained outdoor environmental comfort evaluation based on the outdoor environment is the problem to be solved in this study. Compared to the conventional qualitative analysis methods, the rapidly developing algorithm-supported data acquisition and machine learning modelling are more efficient and accurate. Goodfellow proposed Generative Adversarial Nets (GANs) in 2014, which can successfully be applied to image generation with insufficient training data. In this paper, we propose an approach based on a generative adversarial network (GAN) to predict UTCI in traditional blocks. 36000 data samples were obtained from the simulations, to train a pix2pix model based on the TensorFlow framework. After more than 300 thousand iterations, the model gradually converges, where the loss of the function gradually decreases with the increase of the number of iterations. Overall, the model has been able to understand the overall semantic information behind the UTCI graphs to a high degree. Study in this paper deeply integrates the method of data augmentation based on GAN and machine learning modeling, which can be integrated into the workflow of detailed urban design and sustainable construction in the future.

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Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) and adverse pregnancy outcomes in Ahvaz, Iran

Cited by 19 publications

References 60 publications

An expert review of environmental heat exposure and stillbirth in the face of climate change: Clinical implications and priority issues

An expert review of environmental heat exposure and stillbirth in the face of climate change: Clinical implications and priority issues

A feasibility study of the use of UmbiFlow™ to assess the impact of heat stress on fetoplacental blood flow in field studies

Modeling on Outdoor Thermal Comfort in Traditional Residential Neighborhoods in Beijing Based on GAN

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