Peer-reviewed article
Climate informed pediatric care – Nurturing a better future for children
Cheryl Anderson, Robert McLellan, Carl Cooley, Catherine Denial, R. Butcher ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-sonnet-5-5Climate change poses health risks to children, and the American Academy of Pediatrics asked pediatricians in 2024 to include climate counseling in their care. Dartmouth Health ran an 18-month pilot of a Climate-Informed Pediatric Care toolkit in seven community pediatric practices. Clinicians received a short educational session and a set of resources, and were surveyed before and after. Confidence in having climate-informed conversations with patients improved, and about half of participants used at least one toolkit item. The authors say more study is needed.
Key points
- Children are particularly vulnerable to the health effects of climate change.
- The 2024 AAP policy statement urges pediatricians to include climate change counseling in clinical practice.
- Dartmouth Health piloted a toolkit over 18 months in seven community practices.
- Overall confidence in having climate-informed conversations with patients improved after the intervention.
- About half of participants reported using at least one toolkit item.
Limitations
This is a small pilot with no comparison group, and the abstract gives no numbers. It measures clinician confidence and toolkit use, not any change in children's health or in the counseling families actually received.
Abstract
Introduction Climate change poses significant health risks and children are particularly vulnerable to its effects. In 2024, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) updated its clinical recommendations for climate-informed care in a policy statement, urging pediatricians to incorporate climate change counseling into clinical practice. In alignment with this policy, Dartmouth Health embarked on an 18-month initiative to develop and pilot test a novel Climate-Informed Pediatric Care (CIPC) toolkit to increase uptake of the AAP policy statement’s clinical recommendations in general pediatric practices. Methods A short educational session was offered and a toolkit of resources was provided to seven community practices throughout the health system. Changes from baseline were assessed by pre- and post-implementation surveys. Toolkit use was measured manually and through reports generated from the electronic medical record. Results Overall, our findings show that a climate-informed care toolkit holds promise in helping busy clinicians incorporate climate counseling into practice. There was improved overall confidence in having climate-informed conversations with patients after the intervention, and about half of study participants reported using at least one toolkit item. Conclusion Though further study is needed, the findings from this pilot show a climate-informed care toolkit has the potential to help pediatricians align with the current AAP guidelines.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
- Intervention
- A short educational session plus a Climate-Informed Pediatric Care toolkit of resources for clinicians.
- Population
- Clinicians in seven community pediatric practices within the Dartmouth Health system (United States).
Key finding
Overall confidence in having climate-informed conversations with patients improved after the intervention.
Anderson et al. · OpenAlex - Early Childhood · 7 Oct 2026