Too Hot or Too Cold: Effect of Extreme Temperatures on Self-Reported Mental Health Outcomes in South Africa

For Africa, there is limited documented evidence on the impact of weather shocks on mental health. The expediency and need to understand this nexus motivate this study on the effect of extreme temperatures on self-reported mental health in South Africa. We combine district-level climate data with a nationally representative panel dataset from the National Income Dynamics Survey, which spans 2008 to 2017. Using a panel fixed-effects Poisson model, we observe that, overall, an additional cold day is associated with a reduced mental health score, while an additional cold night shows a positive relationship with mental health. However, delving into the seasonal intricacies of this relationship, the result shows that additional warm days are good for mental health in both winter and summer. In addition, warmer nights in the past 7 days during winter show a positive relationship with good mental health, while warmer nights for the same period during summer are detrimental to mental health. Our results also highlight the effect of temperature shocks on mental health components (such as depression, loneliness, etc.) and the contributions of factors such as age, exercise, and underlying health conditions to mental health outcomes.