SuppliedUniversity of Alberta PhD student Tian Zhao spent three months in the Western Cape, South Africa. She worked with local NGOs and collected data to investigate how South African adults are affected by extreme heat. Specifically, how their mental health is affected.
Zhao’s research involves looking at extreme heat exposure and depression among South Africans. Sleep disruptions and food insecurity are modifiers she is also looking at.
Zhao always had a unique connection to mental health research. After completing her master’s in prenatal and postnatal health, she wanted to learn more about mental wellness and what impacts it.
She received funding to complete fieldwork in South Africa after winning the International Doctoral Research Award. The award helps doctoral students enrolled in Canadian universities with their research and supports fieldwork in the Global South.
Extreme heat can cause lower sleep quality and food insecurity
While climate change is evidently making our globe hotter, not many are considering its impact on mental health, according to Zhao.
However, extreme heat and factors like poor air quality can contribute to depression rates. Especially in places like South Africa, where extreme heat is a dominant problem.
“I’m looking at how extreme heat causes depression, but via different pathways,” Zhao said.
Climate change and extreme heat can impact a community’s food accessibility, leading to poor mental health. Heat can impair how crops grow, which may cause food shortages in communities. Families constantly worry about how to acquire their next meal and how their children will eat.
Employability may also be impacted by heat. Some individuals may not be able to work outside and endure extremely hot temperatures every day to make a living.
Others cannot sleep well during extreme heat and are at greater risk of depression and poor mental health. Zhao is looking at how extreme heat affects sleep quality and how it impacts mental health and depression rates.
She collected information in the Western Cape by working with data collectors who were hired through communities. They used questionnaires to gather information regarding demographics, depression status, food insecurity, and sleep quality.
“I always believe that when you take information from the community, you always want to give something back,” Zhao said. She held education sessions where she educated communities on mental health and shared ways to cope with the extreme heat.
“As researchers, we’re always there to find problems, but who’s there to actually solve the problem?” Zhao says
A woman in the Western Cape asked a question which left the researcher speechless. She asked Zhao what she would do to help her, and her community in that very moment. “I was speechless … I couldn’t provide anything on that day, and I didn’t have any immediate solutions.”
Zhao explained that her research will help the community long-term, but the woman told her that the help will never reach her anytime soon, and she will continue to suffer immensely.
Zhao felt useless in that moment, and the comment made her reflect on what researchers do for the communities they investigate, and what she can do to create an immediate difference instead of simply getting a paper published.
Climate change will not end anytime soon, said Zhao, so we need to build resilience against it to help communities, and understand the issues it’s causing (such as decreased mental health rates, and how the economy is affected). More evidence regarding the relationship between extreme heat and mental health would also be beneficial.
Right now, joining community activities and sticking together to mitigate negative mental health symptoms are coping strategies individuals can use to protect their mental health, according to Zhao.
“I hope my research in this specific community in South Africa could apply to similar settings in any other place,” she said.
Her research could offer guidance on how to tackle the problem of poor mental health in other hot climates. However, factors like culture, economic status, and religious status of nations all change how communities respond to extreme heat. How each community copes with poor mental health under hot weather is also context-dependent.
While Zhao’s research is South Africa focused, it spreads broader awareness which can guide future research.
Her upcoming project plans to look at various countries together, and explore similarities and differences in terms of mental health and climate change.
Zhao also hopes to look at immigrants in Canada, and visible minority groups.
