Climate Change and Chronic Diseases: highly-resolved disease-specific pilot study.

This project tests collecting detailed individual-level data across diseases in real-world settings, to inform climate adaptation, policy, and future research amid climate change impacts.

This pilot project explores how climate change—particularly unseasonal temperatures and heatwaves—affects people living with chronic diseases. Bringing together expertise in health, climate science, architecture, and policy, the team will collect detailed, individual-level data across three exemplar disease areas, integrating physiological, environmental (indoor and outdoor), and lived experience data. The study will be conducted in real-world settings and co-designed with affected communities and charities. The project aims to demonstrate the feasibility of this approach, generate disease-specific insights to inform adaptation strategies, and elevate the visibility of climate-health impacts within UCL and beyond.

Outcomes will include early evidence for policy engagement, improved communication strategies for vulnerable groups, and a foundation for larger-scale research. Success will be measured by cross-disciplinary collaboration, data quality, and early policy influence, with long-term goals including broader funding and integration of indoor environment considerations into climate-health research.