Food, water and sanitation insecurity are usually treated as social conditions around disease. Climate-health research suggests they can also be measured as exposures that change behaviour, mobility, stress and vulnerability.
A 2026 study among older adults in Moshi examined extreme-weather exposure, weather-related mobility and resource insecurity in relation to HIV-vulnerability measures. More than half of participants reported multiple recent extreme-weather exposures. Weather exposure, mobility and low food security were associated with lower condom-use self-efficacy; mobility was associated with lower relationship power; and mobility and sanitation insecurity were associated with higher odds of lifetime IPV. These cross-sectional relationships do not establish that climate shocks caused HIV infection or violence.
Their value is to make an indirect pathway measurable. Resource insecurity can alter the range of choices a household has, where people move, how relationships are negotiated and whether health behaviours are feasible. This places social protection, mobility and basic services inside the climate-health conversation rather than treating them as separate policy sectors.
Publications behind this Insight
When Extreme Weather Becomes an HIV Vulnerability
When Extreme Weather Becomes an HIV Vulnerability. 2026. 10.1177/09564624261446403.
Open publication