Sustained mental health outcomes from the youth readiness intervention: A four-year effectiveness follow-up of a hybrid type II trial in Sierra Leone.

Climate change presents a fundamental threat to human health []. As the climate warms, more frequent and intense weather events are observed, including extreme heat, storms, floods, droughts and bushfires []. These hazards affect health both directly and indirectly, increasing the risk of death, the emergence and spread of communicable diseases, and health emergencies []. Under climate change, hot and dry conditions—often termed ‘fire weather’—become more common and severe, vegetation dries out and landscapes become more flammable, pushing up the odds of bushfire occurrences []. Bushfires release large amounts of gaseous and particulate matter (PM) air pollutants, with PM (particles ≤ 2.5 μm in diameter) comprising about 90% of total emissions and posing the greatest health risk []. Recent evidence further implicates human‐driven climate change in heat‐related mortality, where about 37% of heat‐related deaths have been attributed to human‐induced climate change []. Heat‐related deaths among those aged over 65 years have risen by about 85% between the period 2000–2004 and the period 2017–2021 [].