Conference Agenda

Climate change presents significant health risks, yet much of the existing research has focused on temperate, developed regions, leaving a critical gap in understanding its impacts on tropical, developing countries. This paper examines how temperature and humidity affect both subjective and objective human health outcomes for Indonesia’s tropical climate. Using detailed individual health data and high-resolution weather records, we explore both the contemporaneous and cumulative effects of extreme weather conditions. Our findings show that high temperatures have a contemporaneous negative impact on subjective health, while high humidity appears to have a protective effect. In contrast, objective health measures, such as lung capacity, blood pressure, and haemoglobin levels, show little response to short-term weather fluctuations, with no significant contemporaneous effects. For these objective health measures, estimates for cumulative exposure over time suggest potential physiological acclimatization to extreme conditions. These results challenge the U-shaped health-temperature relationship seen in temperate regions and emphasize the unique role of humidity in modulating the effects of temperature in coastal tropical areas. Additionally, our analysis highlights the critical role of sleep disturbances as a mediator for subjective health impacts.