Developing a framework to guide intervention planning to reduce heat exposure and poor air quality in school...

Poor indoor air quality and heat, individually and together, cause serious health impacts on children. Thus, there is a growing interest in creating school classroom environments that reduce health risks associated with these indoor environmental conditions. However, it is unclear if the existing evidence provides effective, practical and reliable interventions or strategies that can be implemented in classrooms. Additionally, the pertinence of these strategies for low-income communities needs to be elucidated. This scoping review will, therefore, document the findings of studies that have analysed interventions and strategies to improve school classroom conditions by reducing heat exposure and poor air quality to protect the health and well-being of children. This scoping review will consider: (1) interventions or adaptation strategies that have reduced heat exposure in classrooms; (2) interventions or adaptation strategies that have reduced air pollutant exposure in classrooms; (3) classroom building modifications that reduce exposure to heat and poor air quality and (4) improved health outcomes in children due to reduced heat and air pollutants. Studies that report reductions in heat or air pollutant exposure and show significant improvements in learner health outcomes will be prioritised for deeper analysis and considered particularly valuable for informing evidence-based recommendations.

We will explore original and review articles from both high-income and low-income settings that evaluate interventions and strategies for preventing or reducing heat exposure and poor air quality, to safeguard the health and well-being of children in classrooms. A comprehensive literature search will be conducted on Ovid MEDLINE, Ovid Global Health, PubMed, Scopus, ScienceDirect and Web of Science. Searches will be limited to literature published in the last 10 years (2015-2025). Results will be exported to EndNote for deduplication and to Abstrackr software for screening. Four reviewers will do abstract screening to ensure consistency. Data from included papers will be presented in tables with a narrative commentary.

No ethical approval is required for this study as primary data collection will not be conducted. A manuscript detailing the findings from this review will be published in a peer-reviewed journal.