The National Institute of Health has awarded Rutgers a nearly $4 million grant to conduct a study exploring how pregnant women are impacted by extreme heat and air pollution.

Soko Setoguchi, the co-director of the Rutgers Center for Climate, Health and Healthcare, based at the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research, received the grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

The study will assess the interactions between extreme heat, air pollution, and medication use in low-income pregnant patients.

Nearly two-thirds of pregnant women in the U.S. take at least one prescription drug other than vitamins, and researchers say medication use is likely to play an important role in modifying the health effects of heat and air pollution or increasing morbidity in vulnerable pregnant patients and their offspring.

“Our study will produce evidence that will guide clinical and policy decisions to protect this vulnerable population from extreme heat and air pollution while providing new insights on underlying biological processes, said Setoguchi, who is also a professor of medicine and epidemiology at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and Rutgers School of Public Health. 

The Center for Climate, Health, and Healthcare, a collaboration between Rutgers Health and RWJBarnabas Health, is on a mission to improve the health and healthcare of people and communities in New Jersey, nationally, and globally by combatting the climate health crisis through research, education, and community-oriented climate action.