Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41417888›Full record

ArticleScience advances2025

Does humidity matter? Prenatal heat and child health in South Asia.

Kathryn McMahon, Kathy Baylis, Stuart Sweeney, Chris Funk

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Science advances, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Kathryn McMahonDepartment of Geography, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-6356-0908
Kathy BaylisDepartment of Geography, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA.ORCID 0000-0001-9633-4766
Stuart SweeneyDepartment of Geography, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA.ORCID 0000-0003-3450-6870
Chris FunkClimate Hazards Center, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-9254-6718

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Heat extremes pose substantial health risks during pregnancy and early childhood. High humidity exacerbates heat strain, but its long-term effects on health remain poorly understood. We compare the effect of prenatal exposure to extreme humid heat versus heat alone on child growth in South Asia, where high rates of child stunting meet rapidly accelerating hot-humid extremes. After adjusting for sociodemographic, seasonal, and spatial confounders, we use within-community variation in children's ages to isolate the impact of prenatal exposures. We find that hot-humid exposures are much more detrimental to health than hot temperatures alone, with the potential to increase stunting in South Asia by over 3 million children by 2050. These findings underscore the importance of accounting for humidity when estimating and localizing climate change impacts.

Indexed as

Child HealthHot TemperatureHumidityPrenatal Exposure Delayed EffectsAsiaAsia, SouthernChildChild, PreschoolClimate ChangeFemaleHumansInfantMalePregnancy

Identifiers

PMID41417888
PMCPMC12716390

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.