The study will look at coping strategies and ways to strengthen health systems to tackle heat stress.
| Photo Credit: V. RAJU
A study to evaluate the effect of heat on physical and mental health in south India and to arrive at a personalised heat-impact metric tool for individuals, homes and communities has been initiated in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
The M.S.Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) will work with the State governments, SCARF, the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru, and ICMR institutions – the National Institute of Traditional Medicine in Belagavi and the National Institute of Epidemiology, Chennai. “We are looking at getting a granular understanding of the impact of heat on human health in an effort to chart out what different departments need to do,” says MSSRF chairperson Soumya Swaminathan. The project will also assess preparedness of health systems – from primary to tertiary – to handle heat stress among the people.
The sites chosen in Tamil Nadu are Perungudi in Chennai and Poompuhar in Mayiladuthurai while in Karnataka, they are Sirwar in Raichur and Chalakarre in Chitradurga. As many as 1,200 households have been roped in per site for the study.
“For a one-degree rise in environment temperature, what will be the heat stress, we will study this,” explains Mohan Kumar, director, health systems and nutrition, MSSRF. In preparation, two weather systems will be set up at every site to measure environmental temperature, pollution, air quality, and humidity. A total of 80 residents in the area, and participants in the trial will receive a digital watch to keep track of surface body temperature. The participants will be interviewed in three phases beginning this summer, followed by non-summer months and then, one more summer.
Periodic monitoring
The participants’ vitals will be monitored periodically, besides the salivary cortisol levels to understand the impact of heat stress on that individual. Participants have been categorised into low, medium and high risk for stress, based on their age, gender, occupation, type of house they live in, and existence of co-morbidities.
“We will also be studying the preparedness of health systems to address heat stress, and for this we are working with the governments of the two States, including local bodies for this, and the meteorology offices,” Dr. Kumar explains. State-level heat-related morbidity and mortality data too will be factored in. “The first phase of the study will hopefully generate enough information for us to look at coping strategies and strengthening health systems, find promising solutions to handle the crisis, engineer them and implement them, before scaling up too.”
Another endpoint of the study is also to develop an early warning systems app, which could be personalised for the location of the wearer. It will gather environmental information, and weaving in the individual’s particular circumstances, generate a heat risk prediction for the day. This could be generated at the community level too, he adds.
Published – July 22, 2026 01:18 am IST