Poster Presentation ESA-SRB-ANZOS 2025 in conjunction with ENSA

Examining current Australian health policies for pregnant people during heat exposure and heatwaves (128933)

Carolyn R Sam 1 , Caitlin S Wyrwoll 1 , Supriya Mathew 2 , RISHU THAKUR 2 , Rebecca E Haddock 3 , Aster F Gebremedhin 1
  1. School of Human Sciences, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
  2. Menzies School of Health Research, Charles Darwin University, Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia
  3. Deeble Institute for Health Policy Research, Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia

The risks associated with extreme heat stress during pregnancy are of growing concern (1), especially in Australia where the frequency and severity of heatwaves is expected to increase in the following decades (2). However, the extent to which Australian legislation and public health policy adequately address heat stress during gestation remains unclear. This gap in knowledge is of concern as health policies and advisories inform what protective mechanisms are implemented by the healthcare system, its providers and pregnant people themselves. Hence, this project aims to identify gaps in public health messaging for pregnant people during heat exposure, and recommend how current Australian policies and frameworks can be improved from a health equity perspective. Keyword searches via Google Advanced Search and targeted websites were conducted to identify grey literature related to heat, pregnant health and general human health. Only documents published between January 2014 to present were included. These documents were imported into Covidence for systematic screening and review. A set list of variables was extracted from each document before being analysed via a “social determinants of health” approach (3). A qualitative thematic analysis was conducted via NVivo software, with identified themes analysed against current literature on pregnant health and heat to develop recommendations. A preliminary keyword search using the Analysis & Policy Observatory website identified 50 documents with the keywords “heat” and “health” in Australia; none of these documents made mention to pregnant health. Given that this website has been identified as a key open-access resource for policy documents, we thus far conclude that there may be a gap in Australian policy which references heat-health impact in the context of pregnant people. It will be crucial to further investigate the extent to which “informal” health messaging is captured in grey literature, and its accessibility to identified priority pregnant populations.  

  1. (1) Lakhoo, D. P., Brink, N., Radebe, L., Craig, M. H., Pham, M. D., Haghighi, M. M., Wise, A., Solarin, I., Luchters, S., Maimela, G., Chersich, M. F., Chikandiwa, A., Nakstad, B., Wright, C. Y., Brimicombe, C., Technau, K.-G., Harden, L., Boeckmann, M., Strehlau, R., & Hetem, R. S. (2025). A systematic review and meta-analysis of heat exposure impacts on maternal, fetal and neonatal health. Nature Medicine, 31(2), 684-694. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591- 024-03395-8
  2. (2) Adnan, M. S. G., Dewan, A., Botje, D., Shahid, S., & Hassan, Q. K. (2022). Vulnerability of Australia to heatwaves: A systematic review on influencing factors, impacts, and mitigation options. Environmental Research, 213, 113703. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2022.113703
  3. (3) Littleton, C., & Reader, C. (2022). To what extent do Australian child and youth health, and education wellbeing policies, address the social determinants of health and health equity?: a policy analysis study. BMC Public Health, 22(1), 2290. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022- 14784-4