The Mni Sota Center for Weather and Health (MCWH), one of 21 exploratory research centers founded as part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Climate Change and Health Initiative (CCHI), is an interdisciplinary center that draws on expertise from across the University of Minnesota and the state to address the complexity of the health impacts of evolving weather. The center aims to lead research that will characterize health impacts related to extreme weather, and translate those findings into actionable measures with a specific focus on impacts to American Indian and rural populations.
Goals
- Leverage multidisciplinary expertise and partnerships to build regional research capacity for research on weather and health that aligns with the priorities of target communities.
- Establish a Community Engagement Core to co-develop a research agenda with American Indian and rural communities that will guide future research using novel and existing data while following culturally safe research practices.
- Support research projects that will develop extreme weather and health research capacity using a novel data resource based on a multi-system electronic health records consortium to evaluate the effects of extreme weather events in at risk communities and specifically American Indian and rural populations.
- Establish a pilot project and emerging Issues program that identifies and responds to stakeholder priorities in the co-developed research agenda and creates partnerships that will rapidly progress toward substantial research projects.
MCWH is co-led by investigators at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health and the Institute on the Environment, and partners in the University of Minnesota Medical School and Minnesota EHR Consortium.
A Focus on American Indian and Rural Populations
Weather patterns, particularly extreme weather events, impact the health and wellbeing of people, animals, and ecosystems across the globe. While the health and wellbeing of all people is affected by weather, the impacts are distributed disproportionately. These effects on vulnerable populations are often exacerbated by underlying health inequities which inhibit resiliency to extreme weather and impede adaptation planning. American Indian, rural, and agricultural populations are examples of specific populations who are likely at elevated risk to the effects of extreme weather.
While a considerable amount of research has evaluated such effects in urban and coastal populations, largely due to more abundant data, less is available for rural populations, where there are persistent healthcare inequities and deficient health infrastructure. Additionally, the lack of comprehensive health outcomes data at a population level has limited the evaluation of factors such as extreme weather, air pollution, and drought in specific vulnerable groups that are difficult to identify. The burden of extreme weather is of particular concern to American Indian persons. The historical systematic destruction of their communities and cultural connection to natural systems creating a condition of ecological grief, i.e., grief due to loss or deterioration of land, is believed to be linked to mental health conditions, substance use, obesity, and chronic health conditions. Moreover, research to identify health risk factors and appropriate measures of control in American Indian populations has been hampered by investigators not recognizing and/or understanding the unique history, culture, and political status of American Indian persons.
Mni Sota … “Where the waters reflect the sky”
Mni Sota is the Dakota word for ‘where the waters reflect the sky’, which well describes the Upper Midwest.
The long-term objective of the Mni Sota Center for Weather and Health is to implement a broad-based research agenda that meets the needs of communities in identifying and responding to the health impacts of weather extremes, and translate findings to create practical and actionable strategies for adaptation and mitigation that are culturally respectful and grounded in community traditions.