Cumulative exposure to urban heat can affect the learning capacity of students and penalize the vulnerable and low-income young population

Konstantina Vasilakopoulou , Matthaios Santamouris

Background: Elevated temperatures negatively impact human well-being, heighten mental health risks, and impair cognitive function, with young populations being especially vulnerable. Prolonged exposure to rising ambient temperatures further exacerbates these effects, potentially hindering student’s cognitive performance under extreme heat conditions.
Objectives: This paper systematically reviews the existing knowledge on the long-term and cumulative exposure of students to heat stress, with the aim to synthesize evidence on the magnitude and mechanisms of the associated cognitive loss and on the adaptation measures and technologies to mitigate these cognitive impacts, evaluating their efficiency and potential limitations. Additionally, the paper explores the evidence provided by the existing literature on the social and economic inequalities and heterogeneities caused by prolonged heat exposure among students within and across countries and presents existing forecasts about the cognitive risks associated with future overheating.
Methods: We searched PubMed, Scopus, PsycINFO, Web of Science, Science Direct, and Google Scholar for eligible studies. We included peer-reviewed articles with the following characteristics: 1. Examining the long-term impacts of indoor or outdoor temperature on students' learning capacity, the social and economic inequalities established, the adaptive measures used, the future climate’s effect on cognition, 2. Published in the last 15 years and up to December 2024, 3. Written in English. We excluded clinical trials, theses, reviews and studies on the effects of short-term exposure to heat. We mapped the effects of overheating, the adaptation strategies analysed, and the level of impact based on socioeconomic status and synthesised the results narratively. Bias was avoided by including studies with large numbers of participants and a robust analysis.
Results: 7 studies from 6 articles were included in the review. Collectively, these studies analyzed a dataset comprising nearly 14.5 million students from 61 countries. The findings suggest that long-term heat exposure negatively impacts students' cumulative learning and that the effect appears to be greater for complex tasks, e.g., mathematics, compared to simpler tasks, such as reading. Acclimatisation to higher temperatures combined with the increased prevalence of air conditioning in warmer regions, appears to shield students from the cognitive disruptions associated with heat exposure. Populations experiencing vulnerability, particularly those with lower socioeconomic status, face the greatest impact from heat exposure's effects. As global temperatures continue to rise, these groups are disproportionately impacted, highlighting the need for targeted measures to address inequities and protect those most at risk.
The study presents limitations related to the heterogeneity of the populations participating in each study and that of the methodologies used.