Health, Heat and Wellbeing
Modeling the Epidemiologic Transition Study | ASCEND Synthesis Team
This research team studies cardiometabolic health in African-origin populations across multiple countries, examining how physical activity, diet, and environmental factors influence obesity and disease risk over time.
Overview
About this synthesis team
This research team studies cardiometabolic health in African-origin populations across multiple countries, examining how physical activity, diet, and environmental factors influence obesity and disease risk over time.
The Challenge
African populations are undergoing rapid epidemiologic transitions, with rising non-communicable disease burdens layered onto persistent infectious risks. Climate and environmental change interacts with both, but the cohort, surveillance, and environmental datasets needed to see the pattern are rarely analysed together.
Our Approach
METS harmonises existing longitudinal cohort data with environmental and climate exposure records to model how warming, air quality, and shifting livelihoods reshape disease trends, delivering findings jointly with public health decision-makers.
Expected Outputs
- Epidemiological risk models
- Peer-reviewed synthesis paper
- Public health policy brief
People
Team members
Researchers, practitioners, and decision-makers contributing to this synthesis team.
Project leads
2 membersLara R. Dugas
Loyola University Chicago, United States & University of Cape Town, South Africa
Amy Luke
Loyola University Chicago, United States
Project members
8 membersKweku Bedu-Addo
Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana
Kingsley Apusiga
Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana
Estelle V. Lambert
University of Cape Town, South Africa
Terrence E. Forrester
University of West Indies, Jamaica
Pascal Bovet
Ministry of Health, Victoria, Republic of Seychelles
Jack A. Gilbert
University of Sand Diego, United States
Brian T. Layden
University of Illinois Chicago, United States
Candice Choo-Kang
Loyola University Chicago, United States
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