Health Effects Of Climate Change Research Articles

Health effects of climate change – Are they sufficiently addressed in pediatric settings in Germany to meet parents’ needs?

• Climate change increasingly impacts negatively children's health. • Parents have a need for information on climate change-related health effects. • But the topic is still insufficiently addressed in pediatric settings in Germany. • There is a gap between parental needs and the information offered by pediatricians. • Pediatric settings offer an avenue to close the gap and inform parents adequately. Children today are particularly vulnerable to direct and indirect health effects of climate change. Exposure to health hazards related to climate change will increase in the future. These health impacts increasingly pose additional challenges for the health care system, both in curative treatment and in preventive care. This paper therefore examines whether health care facilities for children and adolescents (“pediatric settings”) in Germany are adequately preparing for the impact of climate change on children's health. For this purpose, we combine the results of two studies that investigated the relevance assessment of climate change-related health effects on children's health and the level of information on this topic among pediatricians ( n = 408) and parents ( n = 292). In addition, a narrative literature review was conducted. We have found that parents' need for information on this topic is currently not being met by pediatricians, as the topics of climate change and health are inadequately addressed in pediatric settings in Germany. Thus, there is a gap between the demand for information and the lack of supply that needs to be closed. To close the gap between parents' need for information on the impact of climate change on children's health and pediatricians' insufficient provision of information, more training materials, more trained staff and more climate change and health information resources are needed in pediatric settings. In order to provide all parents with evidence-based knowledge, the communication of the complex health effects should be readily accessible and target group-oriented.

Diversifying Indigenous Vulnerability and Adaptation: An Intersectional Reading of Māori Women’s Experiences of Health, Wellbeing, and Climate Change

Despite evidence that Indigenous peoples’ multiple subjectivities engender diverse lived experiences both between and within Indigenous groups, the influence of multiple subjectivities on Indigenous peoples’ vulnerability and adaptation to climate change is largely un-explored. Drawing on ethnographic research with Indigenous Māori women in Aotearoa New Zealand, this paper provides empirical evidence that subjectivity-mediated power dynamics operating within Indigenous societies (at the individual and household scale) are important determinants of vulnerability and adaptation which should be considered in both scholarship and policy. Using an intersectional framework, I demonstrate how different Māori women and their whānau (families) live, cope with, and adapt to the embodied physical and emotional health effects of climate change in radically different ways because of their subject positionings, even though they belong to the same community, hapū (sub-tribe), or iwi (tribe). In underlining these heterogenous experiences, I provide an avenue for reconsidering how climate adaptation scholarship, policies, and practices might better engage with the complex, amorphous realities within Māori and other Indigenous communities. I argue it is possible to develop more inclusive, tailored, and sustainable adaptation that considers divergent vulnerabilities and adaptive capacities within Indigenous communities, groups, and societies and supports customised vulnerability-reduction strategies.

Protecting women's health in a changing climate: The role of community-based adaptation

Community-based adaptation is an emerging approach to mitigating the health consequences of climate change, yet, the interactions amongst climate change, community-based adaptation, health and gender have not been explored as a single nexus in a low-income setting. The paper uses the Adaptation Learning Programme as a case to explore this nexus. The Adaptation Learning Programme was a gender-integrated community-based adaptation programme implemented from 2010 to 2015 in Garissa County in Kenya. A case study methodology with an interpretivist epistemological approach was chosen to explore the complexity underlying the unique context of the Adaptation Learning Programme‘s implementation in Garissa. Data was collected from grey literature published and was analysed using a systematic framework. Adaptation Learning Programme community-based adaptation interventions enhanced adaptive capacity, through enhancing women's access to markets and economic assets, teaching women adaptive agricultural practices, including women in decision-making processes, and disseminating gender-sensitive climate information to communities. These processes mitigated several climate-related health risks faced by women in Garissa, but also failed to address the structural causes of their health vulnerabilities. The findings can be scaled up to inform further community-based adaptations and national policies on gender-sensitive approaches to climate change.

Cooling the City? A Scientometric Study on Urban Green and Blue Infrastructure and Climate Change-Induced Public Health Effects

Climate change causes global effects on multiple levels. The anthropogenic input of greenhouse gases increases the atmospheric mean temperature. It furthermore leads to a higher probability of extreme weather events (e.g., heat waves, floods) and thus strongly impacts the habitats of humans, animals, and plants. Against this background, research and innovation activities are increasingly focusing on potential health-related aspects and feasible adaptation and mitigation strategies. Progressing urbanization and demographic change paired with the climate change-induced heat island effect exposes humans living in urban habitats to increasing health risks. By employing scientometric methods, this scoping study provides a systematic bird’s eye view on the epistemic landscapes of climate change, its health-related effects, and possible technological and nature-based interventions and strategies in order to make urban areas climate proof. Based on a literature corpus consisting of 2614 research articles collected in SCOPUS, we applied network-based analysis and visualization techniques to map the different scientific communities, discourses and their interrelations. From a public health perspective, the results demonstrate the range of either direct or indirect health effects of climate change. Furthermore, the results indicate that a public health-related scientific discourse is converging with an urban planning and building science driven discourse oriented towards urban blue and green infrastructure. We conclude that this development might mirror the socio-political demand to tackle emerging climate change-induced challenges by transgressing disciplinary boundaries.

Projections of future temperature-related cardiovascular mortality under climate change, urbanization and population aging in Beijing, China

Climate change is causing the surface temperature to rise and the extreme weather events to increase in frequency and intensity, which will pose potential threats to the survival and health of residents. Beijing is facing multiple challenges such as coping with climate change, urbanization, and population aging, which puts huge decision-making pressure on decision maker. However, few studies that systematically consider the health effects of climate change, urbanization, and population aging for China. Based on the distributed lag nonlinear model (DLNM) and 13 global climate models in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6), this study obtained the temporal and spatial distribution of surface temperature through statistical downscaling methods, and comprehensively explored the independent and comprehensive effects of urbanization and population aging on the projection of future temperature-related cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality in the context of climate and population change. The results showed that only improving urbanization can reduce future temperature-related CVD mortality by 1.7–18.3%, and only intensified aging can increase future temperature-related CVD mortality by 48.8–325.9%. Taking into account the improving urbanization and intensified aging, future temperature-related CVD mortality would increase by 44.1–256.6%, and the increase was slightly lower than that of only intensified aging. Therefore, the intensified aging was the biggest disadvantage in tackling climate change, which would obviously magnify the mortality risks of temperature-related CVD in the future. Although the advancement of urbanization would alleviate the adverse effects of the intensified aging population, the mitigation effects would be limited. Even so, Urbanization should be continued to reduce health risks for residents. These findings would contribute to formulate policies related to mitigate climate change and reduce baseline mortality rate (especially the elderly) in international mega-city - Beijing. In addition, relevant departments should improve the medical health care level and optimize the allocation of social resources to better cope with and adapt to climate change.

Climate Change and Physiatry: A Call to Proportional and Prospective Action.

Through increased temperature-related illness, exposure to wildfire smoke and air pollutants, and more frequent and intense natural disasters, climate change is disproportionately affecting the health of people with disabilities. Although the evidence behind the health effects of climate change is growing, there remain critical research gaps in the physiatric literature that must be addressed. Increased education throughout the medical-education continuum is also needed to prepare physiatrists to address the climate-related health effects impacting their patient populations. Physiatrists and their member organizations should advocate for policies that address climate change with a focus on the unique needs of their patient population and the inclusion of people with disabilities in the policy making process.

The Negative Bidirectional Interaction Between Climate Change and the Prevalence and Care of Liver Disease: A Joint BSG, BASL, EASL, and AASLD Commentary

The Negative Bidirectional Interaction Between Climate Change and the Prevalence and Care of Liver Disease: A Joint BSG, BASL, EASL, and AASLD Commentary

Impact of Awareness Program Regarding Health Consequences of Climate Change on Knowledge, Perception and Daily Life practices among Nursing Students

Impact of Awareness Program Regarding Health Consequences of Climate Change on Knowledge, Perception and Daily Life practices among Nursing Students

The climate change hypothesis for the allergy epidemic

The health consequences of climate change are being increasingly recognized. Herein, the climate change hypothesis is put forth as a substantial contributor to the growing global allergy epidemic. Acall for deeper research and action on the impact of climate change on various aspects of allergic disease mechanisms, exacerbation, and prevalence is imperative.

Climate Change: Effects on the Older Adult

The effects of climate change include floods, hurricanes, heat waves, and fires; these natural disasters can result in respiratory, cardiovascular, and psychological harm in older adults, who experience the highest morbidity and mortality during heat waves. Advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) need education on preparing, assessing, and treating older adults for climate-change disasters, especially heat waves. This article will help APRNs understand the effects of climate-change events on the vulnerable older adults and advocates for the need to integrate health effects of climate change into curricula, practicums, policy, and research agendas.

Climate advocacy among Italian pediatric pulmonologists: A national survey on the effects of climate change on respiratory allergies.

Climate change (CC) is expected to negatively impact respiratory health due to air pollution and increased aeroallergen exposure. Children are among the most vulnerable populations due to high ventilation rates, small peripheral airways, and developing respiratory and immunological systems. To assess the current knowledge among Italian pediatric pulmonologists on the potential effects of CC on pediatric respiratory allergic diseases, a national survey was launched online from February 2020 to February 2021. The members of the Italian Pediatric Respiratory Society (SIMRI) were contacted by email and 117 questionnaires were returned (response rate 16.4%). 72.6% of respondents were females, 53.8% were academic pediatricians, 42.7% had been working >10 years. Most of the participants were aware of the potential health effects of CC and stated that they had noticed an increase in the incidence (90.6%) and severity (67.5%) of allergic respiratory diseases among their patients. About 61% and 41% of participants respectively felt that there had been an increase in the number of children sensitized to pollen and molds. When applying latent class analysis to identify the features characterizing participants with greater awareness and knowledge of CC‐related health effects, two classes were identified: almost 60% of the participants were labeled as “poor knowledge” and those with greater awareness were older, had longer work experience, and were those using the Internet to gather information about CC. There is urgent need to increase pediatricians' awareness of the detrimental effects of CC on children's respiratory health and integrate them in the educational programs of healthcare professionals.

Validity and Reliability of the Korean Version of the Climate, Health, and Nursing Tool

Climate change has various negative effects on human health, which has resulted in increased burden on the health care system. Nurses contribute significantly to assessing climate-related health risks and creating a healthy environment. This study aimed to evaluate the reliability and validity of the Korean version of the Climate, Health, and Nursing Tool (K-CHANT) to measure nurses' awareness, motivation, concern, and behaviors at work and at home regarding climate change and health. The 22 items of English CHANT were translated into Korean with forward-backward translation techniques. Internal consistency reliability, test-retest reliability, and construct validity using confirmatory factor analysis were performed using SPSS WIN (25.0) and AMOS (26.0). Survey data were collected from 220 master's, doctoral, and post-doctoral nursing students. The K-CHANT consists of 20 items across 5 domains. Two items of the original CHANT were excluded because of low content validity index and standardized regression weights. The internal consistency reliability of the K-CHANT, assessed by Cronbach's αá was .81, with an intraclass correlation coefficient of .66~.90. The five subscales model was validated by confirmatory factor analysis (SRMR < .08, RMSEA < .08, AGFI > .70, CFI > .70). The K-CHANT has satisfactory construct validity and reliability to measure nurses' awareness, motivation, concern, and behaviors at work and at home regarding climate change and health. Future research should examine nurses' perceptions and behaviors related to the health effects of climate change and develop an action plan to improve it.

Seasonal Variability Influence on the Prevalence of Diarrhoea among Under-Five-Year-old Children in Kersa District, Eastern Ethiopia: A Community-Based Longitudinal Study

Background:The health effects of climate change have been found to be a global concern for the last 2 centuries. However, the effect of climate variability on diarrhoea among under-five-year-old children is perhaps undocumented or otherwise unknown. The aim of the present study was to determine the effect of climate variability on diarrhoea among children under 5 years of age.Methods:A community-based longitudinal study was conducted over 8 repeated visits from June 2016 to May 2018 at the Kersa Demographic Surveillance and Health Research Center. A total of 500 randomly selected households and their 48 improved water sources were included in the survey from 3 agro-ecological zones, the rural and urban areas of the study area. Data was collected on household characteristics, diarrhoea, WASH practices, water quality and quantity in households, and improved water sources. A structured pre-tested questionnaire, an observational check list and laboratory tests were used for data collection. The data was entered into Epi Data Version 3.01 and transferred to Stata Version 12 for analysis. Multilevel mixed-effect Poisson regression was used to determine the relationship between predictors and outcome variables. A P-value of less than .05 was the cut-off point for statistically significant.Results:The prevalence of diarrhoea in 2 weeks among children under 5 years of age was 17.2% (95% CI: 15.8-19.71). Rainfall, E. coli contamination of drinking water at the source and in the home, 20 L of water consumption per capita per day, sharing water sources with animals and home water treatment by residents of the mid- and lowlands were all predictors of diarrhoea. The space-time scan statistic confirmed that child diarrhoea had random variation in both space and time.Conclusion:Climate variability has influenced the prevalence of diarrhoea among under-five-year-old children. Climate-resilient measures should be taken to reduce the burden of diarrhoea in the community.

Coping and Adapting to Climate Change in Australia: Yoga Perspectives

Scientists caution against ignoring human-induced climate change and related health repercussions, with a growing body of literature highlighting the mental health effects of climate change and the importance of understanding coping and adaptation strategies. Less is known, however, about sustainable personal practices fortifying mental health in the context of climate change. The present study sought to investigate how long-term yoga practitioners (yoga therapists or yoga teachers) in Australia with a lived experience of climate change-related events are coping and adapting. The aim was to better understand participants' reports of climate change-related experiences and how yoga influences their mental health and choices in the face of climate change. Eleven in-depth telephone interviews were conducted and analyzed using an interpretive phenomenological methodology. Participants reported that their ongoing relationship with yoga influences how they cope with climate change-related stressors and their being-in-the-world, and how concern for all life bolsters their responses to climate change. The results illustrate the part yoga may play in supporting long-term practitioners to prepare for, cope with, and respond to climate change events and impacts. Offering inclusive, interdisciplinary yoga therapy and community-based networks fostering ethical living and response flexibility may prove beneficial not only for the mental health and coping ability of participants, but for the planet.

Opportunities for the Use of Brief Scalable Psychological Interventions to Support Mental Health and Wellbeing in the Context of the Climate Crisis

Climate change is negatively impacting mental health through multiple pathways. Research to date has largely focused on characterising the link between climate change and mental health and no mental health and psychosocial support intervention has been explicitly designed to address the mental health consequences of climate change. In this commentary, we argue that brief, scalable psychological interventions represent an opportunity to fill this gap. Brief psychological interventions have been shown to be effective in the context of disasters, armed conflict and displacement, which have all been predicted to increase because of climate change. Brief psychological interventions are also likely to be relevant in the context of chronic climate stressors including temperature and sea-level rise or droughts. Additionally, they hold the potential to be used within a prevention and promotion framework, which is likely to be relevant in the context of increasing cumulative and overlapping climate-related adversities. Finally, brief psychological interventions could address several implementation challenges resulting from global climate change and could also be integrated with other programmes, including those that support climate change adaptation and mitigation. Research is urgently needed to provide evidence for the implementation and effectiveness of brief psychological interventions in the context of climate change.

Climate-Related Disasters and Children’s Health: Evidence from Hurricane Harvey

Children have been theorized as vulnerable to the health consequences of climate change, but data limitations have hampered prior studies of climate-related disasters in the United States. In this article, the author exploits the interruption of a health survey in Houston by Hurricane Harvey, linked to local flooding data ( n = 1,123, ages 5–17 years). Multivariable models on a matched sample show that Harvey led to worse parent-reported health among children six to nine months later, particularly in flooded communities. Further evidence suggests that household life disruption and home damage were key mechanisms and that severe exposure correlated with larger health declines among immigrants, including Hispanic and Asian or other-race children and those younger than 10 years. Integrating these findings with life-course theory and climate science, the author argues that through disasters, climate change should be conceptualized as a risk factor for heath and intragenerational disparities within cohorts and for intergenerational inequalities as newer cohorts experience more extreme weather.

Climate Change Health Effects and What You Can Do.

Climate Change Health Effects and What You Can Do.

Understanding the Links Between the Climate Crisis and Child Health

Climate change has severe adverse effects on both child and adult health. It affects multiple body systems including the respiratory, immunologic, and neurologic systems. Increased temperatures, water and food insecurity, extreme climate events such as heatwaves and a loss of biodiversity all increase the prevalence of infectious and non-communicable disease. ISSOP is an international organization that works with social pediatrics and child health professionals in areas of health promotion, disease prevention, curative pediatrics and rehabilitation through participation in system development, policy-making processes and the publishing of international documents for guidance. The “Responding to the Impact of Climate Change on Children” webinar series is a global initiative that aims to highlight the importance of climate change and its adverse effects on child health. Eight structured two-hour webinars were held between February and September 2021. In this review, we aim to summarize the topics of the webinar series and provide recommendations to child health professionals which they can use in their academic and clinical practices. The consequences of climate change on health and, more specifically, child health, deepening inequalities and inequities, the essential role of youth, and the integration of climate change into health education will be discussed. Climate change is a public health emergency and requires everyone to take action. Healthcare professionals, as members of a respected and trusted occupation, must be made aware of the negative health consequences of climate change and play an informative role in society. The impact of such consequences that affect children’s health can be mitigated by increasing societal awareness of the effects of climate change, taking the relevant precautions and implementation of mitigation and adaptation strategies by parents and pediatricians.

Nurses as Boundary Actors in Sustainable Health Care: A Discussion Paper

The devastating global health impacts of climate change are becoming more apparent and more frequent. Health care systems are increasingly burdened by the response to these impacts. Paradoxically, as they respond to the negative health effects of climate change, these same resource intense health care systems are contributing to further climate change. Organizations and academics have issued a call to action for health care workers to mitigate climate change and promote environmental sustainability. Nurses are an integral part of health care systems but have been delayed in answering this call. In this paper we argue that nurses are particularly well suited to mitigating climate change in health care systems because their existing role is central to patient care, and as a result they interface with other health care providers and have developed proficiency in articulation work.

An Interdisciplinary Collaboration for Environmental Education

Climate change education in advanced practice registered nursing curricula prepares nurse practitioners to respond to the health effects of climate change. Knowledge of the relationship between human and environmental health is essential for nurse practitioners to identify, teach, and respond to the health effects of climate change in clinical and community settings. This article describes a webinar hosted by the Sarah P. Duke Gardens in partnership with the Duke University School of Nursing. Our webinar provided an opportunity for attendees to understand how gardening can mitigate climate change, the important relationship between human and environmental health, and nurses’ role in climate crisis.