Frequently Asked Questions

Standards for Official Statistics on Climate-Health Interactions (SOSCHI) is a 4-year project funded by Wellcome (2022-2026) to develop a well-defined set of indicators to measure climate-related health impacts. The aim is to support regular reporting and monitoring at global, national and potentially sub-national levels. For more information see the About us page.

An "indicator" is a single numeric measurement which describes a clearly defined health outcome in a specific population at a given time. The definition of the indicator includes the measurement units, the numerator and denominator (if relevant), etc. e.g. Rate per 100,000 population of deaths from all causes, attributable to excess heat (ambient mean outdoor temperature).

This website is a methods, tools and knowledge-sharing platform. It cannot currently be used to report or store any data.

The primary purpose is to support the dissemination of the SOSCHI statistical framework, and support users to produce indicator metrics using their own underlying climate and health input data. Guidance for users includes topic documents , statistical code and tools and other resources .

The SOSCHI project has engaged with a range of global stakeholders to avoid duplication of effort and support global implementation of the SOSCHI framework. The main benefit of the SOSCHI framework, and its contribution to this field, is providing National Statistics Organisations (NSOs) and other government institutions with harmonised indicators, validated methods and practical tools, to improve the monitoring of climate change impacts on health.

We are seeking endorsement of the SOSCHI framework by the UN Statistical Commission to become part of the authoritative UN Global Set of Climate Change Statistics and Indicators UN Global Set of Climate Change Statistics and Indicators (first adopted in March 2022). This activity is being progressed through the UN Expert Group on Environment and Climate Change Statistics (EG-ECCS).

For more information see the SOSCHI framework report (section 3.3: Relationship to other frameworks).

The following stages in the project were used to define the project scope:

• The Discovery Phase (2022-23) involved defining the scope and approach of the statistical framework.
• The Alpha Phase (2023-24) involved outlining the scope of each topic, identifying potential indicators and developing methods.
• The Beta Phase (2025-25) focussed on six priority topics - selected for further methods development and production of indicator tools on the platform.

For more information on the framework development process see section 2.3 of the SOSCHI Framework Report.

Given data challenges it was not possible to develop all topics to the same quality standard. As a result, each of the SOSCHI framework topics is at a different stage of readiness. Each topic page will include a note advising users on the version/status of the topic.

There are six selected topics which have been prioritised; the outputs for these include a final version of topic documents, R code and an indicator tool .

The additional topics will have an alpha version of these documents, and there may be other related publications, however no fully completed R code or online indicator tools are currently available for these topics.

Users need to produce climate-health indicators using their own underlying input data sources.

Use the search function on the header to navigate to specific topics or indicators which you are interested in. If you want to produce any of the indicator metrics, you will first need to identify and prepare the input data sources. Once the input data is in the required structure, you can either use the R Code or indicator tool (subject to availability) to produce selected climate-health indicator metrics for your country or area. Additional guidance is available to support users (LINKS) (e.g. topic documents, guidance videos etc).

All indicators in the SOSCHI framework can be used to provide estimates and both a national and sub-national level. The specific geographic granularity will vary by country, depending on the statistical power. Furthermore, some methods are only recommended for regional level analysis. For further guidance, see the Framework topic pages for links to the methods documents', Section 2: Data and variables.

The climate-health indicators are not based on direct counts. For all indicators these are estimated based on statistical models. For further guidance see the Framework topic pages for links to the methods documents', Section 2: Data and variables.

All the proposed indicators include guidance on potential disaggregations to identify vulnerable groups and inform policy interventions. Because of data limitations in some countries, and potentially differing policy needs, the feasibility of this will depend on data availability and quality. Furthermore, if an outcome is relatively uncommon, the number of cases and the statistical model techniques used may be insufficient to provide reliable results. For further guidance see the Framework topic pages for links to the methods documents', Section 2.4: Disaggregations of data.

The reliability of indicator metrics produced by the SOSCHI framework is crucial, given that the main purpose is to be suitable for official statistics production.

Official statistics are the format in which a National Statistical Office, or other analytical teams in government, communicates statistical outputs to the public and other government bodies (including policy makes) to inform and make decisions.

Key characteristics of an official statistic include its relevance, accessibility, and statistical quality to accurately and timely inform users. Please see the SOSCHI Framework Report, section 5.2: Statistical quality for more information on the quality assurance processes used in the development of the framework and R package.

The following sections of the indicator methods documents will also provide users with guidance to support their interpretation of results, and explain any potential limitations:

• Section 2.5: Data limitations
• Section 4: Communication and interpretation
• Section 5: Methods limitations

An understanding of descriptive statistics is advised. Each indicator's methodology document provides guidance for running the analysis, interpreting the results, and communicating uncertainty.

Required R coding ability depends on which analysis option a user chooses. The project provides three options as described on the R package page. The "low code" option is recommended for the most comprehensive analysis and requires users to be able to read and edit R code.

The indicator tool on the platform is supported on desktop, tablet and mobile devices, however these devices may not have the capacity to process the data.

The open-source R code library can be found in the onssochi/climatehealth Github repository. To install the package and utilise its functionality, an R build is required. This package was largely developed on R-4.4.1, therefore it is recommended. R-4.4.1 can be downloaded here. Users will also need to have appropriate software of their choice for data preparation, following the guidance provided in sections 2.3 and 3.2 of the respective indicator methodology documents.

The end-to-end process for producing the SOSCHI climate-health indicators is complex. So, it is likely that there may be some errors in the data production process. The various resources provided, aim to provide users with sufficient guidance. However, if users are unable to resolve these, please contact our [email protected] inbox for further support and feedback.