Temperature-related morbidity and mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa: A systematic review of the empirical evidence |
| |
| Institution: | 1. Public Health Research Group, Department of Biomedical Sciences, School of Allied Health Sciences, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana;2. Center for Environmental and Respiratory Health Research, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland;3. Department of Infectious Diseases, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Roma, Italy;1. Department of Preventive Medicine, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Infectious Diseases and Molecular Immunopathology, Shantou University Medical College, Shantou, Guangdong 515041, China;2. Yuxi Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Yuxi, Yunnan 653000, China;3. Department of Sports, Shantou University Medical College, Shantou, Guangdong 515041, China;1. Graduate School of Public Health, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea;2. Department of Global Environmental Health, School of Public Health, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan;3. Faculty of Health and Sport Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan;1. Department of Biostatistics, School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510515, China;2. Department of Endocrinology, Baoan Central Hospital of Shenzhen, Shenzhen, Guangdong 518102, China;3. National Institute for Nutrition and Health, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing 100050, China;4. Department of Information, Baoan Central Hospital of Shenzhen, Shenzhen, Guangdong 518102, China |
| |
| Abstract: | BackgroundSub-Saharan Africa (SSA) contributes very little to overall climate change and yet it is estimated to bear the highest burden of climate change, with 34% of the global DALYs attributable to the effects of climate change found in SSA. With the exception of vector-borne diseases, particularly malaria, there is very limited research on human health effects of climate change in SSA, in spite of growing awareness of the region's vulnerability to climate change.ObjectivesOur objective is to systematically review all studies investigating temperature variability and non-vector borne morbidity and mortality in SSA to establish the state and quality of available evidence, identify gaps in knowledge, and propose future research priorities.MethodsPubMed, Ovid Medline and Scopus were searched from their inception to the end of December 2014. We modified the GRADE guidelines to rate the quality of the body of evidence.ResultsOf 6745 studies screened, 23 studies satisfied the inclusion criteria. Moderate evidence exists to associate temperature variability with cholera outbreaks, cardiovascular disease hospitalization and deaths, and all-cause deaths in the region. The quality of evidence on child undernutrition is low, and for diarrhea occurrence, meningitis, Ebola, asthma and respiratory diseases, and skin diseases, very low.ConclusionsThe evidence base is somehow weakened by the limited number of studies uncovered, methodological limitations of the studies, and notable inconsistencies in the study findings. Further research with robust study designs and standardized analytical methods is thus needed to produce more credible evidence base to inform climate change preparedness plans and public health policies for improved adaptive capacity in SSA. Investment in meteorological services, and strengthening of health information systems is also required to guarantee timely, up-to-date and reliable data. |
| |
| Keywords: | |
| 本文献已被 ScienceDirect 等数据库收录！ |
|
