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Climate change and getting pregnant: a full accounting of conceptions in Armenia and Tajikistan
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Climate change and getting pregnant: a full accounting of conceptions in Armenia and Tajikistan

Sunnee Billingsley, Kathryn Grace and Maryia Bakhtsiyarava
Population and environment, v 47(2), 24
Jun 2025
Featured in Collection :   UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
url
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11111-025-00494-7View
Published, Version of Record (VoR) Open

Abstract

Environment General Original Paper Population Economics Demography Public Health Social Sciences Sociology
Research on how climate affects conceptions is limited and often constrained by data limitations. Additionally, scientific knowledge is typically based on research focused on very poor or wealthy settings. Here, we examine two middle-income and climate-sensitive contexts, Armenia and Tajikistan, and use finely detailed data on local weather conditions and all conceptions, including those not ending in a live birth. We fit fixed-effects linear probability models of the time until each conception using data from the Demographic and Health Surveys, stratified by educational level and urban/rural residence. No relationship appears between heat and conceptions in Armenia or between rainfall and conceptions in either context. In contrast, exposures to higher-than-usual temperatures and hot days are associated with a lower probability of conception in rural Tajikistan. This finding persists when examining all conceptions and only those resulting in a live birth. Further, the results do not vary by women’s educational attainment nor by being childless or not. As such, we do not find evidence that specific groups of women are more vulnerable to climate variability beyond those living in rural (versus urban) areas. Given the broad impact of heat on conceptions in rural Tajikistan, differences in how individuals engage with the urban and rural environments may be important in the short-term relationship between climate and conceptions.

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UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#3 Good Health and Well-Being
#5 Gender Equality

Source: SDGs in the Output

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
International collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Demography
Environmental Studies
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