DMU Student Completes CDC Internship Focusing on Maternal Health and Climate Change

Rachel Mansk, a student in the Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine program at Des Moines University Medicine and Health Sciences, recently completed a remote, eight-week research internship with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The project, offered through DMU's Department of Global Health, centered on understanding the effects of climate change on maternal health outcomes.

"I have always been interested in understanding the female reproductive health system and how it is influenced by the environment and policy," Mansk says. "I decided to take this idea and make it the focus of my research internship."

Mansk, a native of Anoka, Minnesota, earned her undergraduate degree in human physiology and her master's in public health from the University of Minnesota. Shortly after, she began her D.O. education at DMU.

"We did a lot of work with the CDC during my M.P.H. program. Not directly, but I used their databases for projects, so the chance to work with them directly really excited me," Mansk says. "I chose the medical field over public policy because I wanted to bridge the gap between the two. I applied to this internship because it focuses on public health research."

Having never designed a research project before, Mansk embraced the autonomy of it all. She participated in weekly meetings with the Climate and Health Department and anchored her research on one of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. Adopted in 2015 by all United Nations Member States, this list of 17 goals focuses on ways developed and developing countries can create peace and prosperity by the year 2030.

"The Sustainable Development Goals are ideas that will help the world be a better place for everyone," Mansk says. "I chose to focus on goal 3.1, reducing global maternal mortality rates to less than 70 per 10,000 live births. It was eye-opening looking at this data and learning the United States, although a developed country, still has one of the highest maternal mortality rates compared to other developed nations."

When looking at maternal mortality rates, Mansk could have chosen several factors to study. She chose extreme heat due to the abundance of available data and its critical link to public health. She focused on comparing the United States to other nations that have different health policies and structures. Specifically, her project zeroed in on one indicator: pre-eclampsia, a high blood pressure condition during pregnancy. Mansk found data showing a link between extreme heat and the development of hypertension, which is a risk factor for pre-eclampsia.

"My theory connects climate change and maternal health by examining how extreme heat drives hypertension, sometimes leading to pre-eclampsia in pregnant people, which is a reason maternal mortality can occur," she says. "I looked at global temperature anomalies to examine the extent of warming, and what I found was an alarming rise in average global temperature since 1880."

Her results also suggested a disproportionate impact of global warming on health. For example, most greenhouse gas emissions are produced by developed nations, yet under-developed areas feel the impact of it more. "This finding shows how addressing climate change is the responsibility of developed nations, such as the United States," Mansk says.

Although this project specifically focused on the impact of heat on health, several climate-related factors can worsen maternal health, such as population displacement and polluted water and air. "We are all still learning about climate health and the impact it can have on our public health," Mansk says. "As future health care providers, it's important to not just look at an initial diagnosis and think larger about how our built environment contributes to diseases."

Mansk plans to continue working on this research at DMU while continuing her education in the D.O. program. She plans to share her findings with her peers to encourage others to be more aware of climate change and its impact on public health. Mansk will present her project and findings at the Research Symposium on the DMU campus in November 2024.

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