Effects of ambient heat exposure on risk of all-cause mortality in children younger than 5 years in Africa: a pooled time-series analysis

Between Jan 1, 1993, and Dec 31, 2016, there were 44 909 deaths in children younger than 5 years across the 29 sites in the 13 African countries: 10 078 neonates, 14 141 post-neonates, and 20 690 children. We observed differences in the association of heat with neonate, post-neonate, and child mortality by study region. For example, for Ethiopia, the relative risk ratio of mortality at the 95th percentile compared with median heat exposure during the study period was 1·14 (95% CI 1·06–1·23) for neonates, 0·99 (0·90–1·07) for post-neonates, and 0·79 (0·73–0·87) for children. Across the whole year, there was a significant increase in the relative risk of increased mortality for children in eastern Africa (relative risk 1·27, 95% CI 1·19–1·36) and Senegal and The Gambia (1·11, 1·04–1·18).