Are climate change and mental health correlated?

Climate change and women's mental health in two vulnerable communities of Bangladesh: An ethnographic study

Climate change is one of the most significant challenges humanity faces in the 21st century, with its health impacts being profoundly felt in the most vulnerable countries. However, the mental health impacts of climate change, particularly concerning social inequality and gender dynamics, are less documented in the Global South. This paper focuses on the impact of climate change on women's mental health in two vulnerable communities in Bangladesh. This study employed qualitative methods, including, in-depth interviews, and focus group discussions (FGDs). The communities were selected based on their vulnerability to climate change. A total of 80 participants were selected using snowball sampling, and 55 interviews and 6 FGDs were conducted. Women are particularly vulnerable to climate change impacts on mental health due to their gender roles and responsibilities. Responsible for taking care of their families, they have to face additional challenges due to climate change impacts, such as increased workload, food insecurity, and social insecurity when their husband migrates to the cities for jobs. Women also face social and cultural barriers, which exacerbate their vulnerability to climate change impacts on mental health. Socioeconomic and environmental determinants appear to be embedded and lead to psychological suffering in relation to social roles and gender norms. Interventions should be designed to address the specific needs and challenges faced by women in these communities. Policymakers should take a gender-sensitive approach to address the mental health impacts of climate change in these communities. This study contributes to the growing body of research on the gendered impacts of climate change with a trajectory approach and provides insights for future research in this area.

The Impact of Climate Change on Health Services in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Systematised Review and Thematic Analysis

Aim: The aim of this study was to assess the impact of climate change on health services as categorized by the WHO's Building Blocks for creating Climate-Resilient Health Systems. Objective: The objective was to conduct a systematized review of the published literature concerning the impact of climate change, using a thematic analysis approach to address our aim and identify areas for further research. Design: A search was conducted on 8 February 2022 using the Embase and PubMed research databases. Peer-reviewed scientific studies that were published in English from 2012 to 2022, which described at least one report concerning the impact of climate change on health services in LMICs, were included. Studies were organized based on their key characteristics, which included the date of publication, objective, method, limitations, participants, and geographical focus. The Mixed-Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT) was used to assess the risk of bias in the included studies. Results: Twenty-three studies were included in this review. Five areas of health services which align with the WHO building blocks framework were impacted by climate change. These health service areas included: (1) Service Delivery, (2) Human Resources, (3) Health Finance, (4) Healthcare Products and Technology, and (5) Leadership and Governance. However, research concerning the impact of climate change on health information systems, which is part of the WHO building blocks framework, did not feature in our study. The climatic effects were divided into three themes: meteorological effects, extreme weather events, and general. The research in this study found that climate change had a detrimental impact on a variety of health services, with service delivery being the most frequently reported. The risk of bias varied greatly between studies. Conclusions: Climate change has negatively impacted health services in a variety of different ways, and without further actions, this problem is likely to worsen. The WHO building blocks have provided a useful lens through which to review health services. We built an aligned framework to describe our findings and to support future climate change impact assessments in this area. We propose that further research concerning the impact of climate change on health information systems would be valuable, as well as further education and responsible policy changes to help build resilience in health services affected by climate change.

Climate crisis risks to elderly health: strategies for effective promotion and response

The climate crisis significantly impacts the health and well-being of older adults, both directly and indirectly. This issue is of growing concern in Canada due to the country's rapidly accelerating warming trend and expanding elderly population. This article serves a threefold purpose: (i) outlining the impacts of the climate crisis on older adults, (ii) providing a descriptive review of existing policies with a specific focus on the Canadian context, and (iii) promoting actionable recommendations. Our review reveals the application of current strategies, including early warning systems, enhanced infrastructure, sustainable urban planning, healthcare access, social support systems, and community engagement, in enhancing resilience and reducing health consequences among older adults. Within the Canadian context, we then emphasize the importance of establishing robust risk metrics and evaluation methods to prepare for and manage the impacts of the climate crisis efficiently. We underscore the value of vulnerability mapping, utilizing geographic information to identify regions where older adults are most at risk. This allows for targeted interventions and resource allocation. We recommend employing a root cause analysis approach to tailor risk response strategies, along with a focus on promoting awareness, readiness, physician training, and fostering collaboration and benchmarking. These suggestions aim to enhance disaster risk management for the well-being and resilience of older adults in the face of the climate crisis.

The perceived impact of climate change on mental health and suicidality in Kenyan high school students

BACKGROUND

Climate change has psychological impacts but most of the attention has been focused on the physical impact. This study was aimed at determining the association of climate change with adolescent mental health and suicidality as reported by Kenyan high school students.

METHODS

This was a cross sectional study with a sample size of 2,652. The participants were high school students selected from 10 schools in 3 regions of Kenya. A questionnaire was used to assess climate change experiences, mental health problems, and suicidality of the youth. Data were analyzed descriptively and with logistic regression to determine various associations of the different variables and the predictors of the various scores of SDQ and suicidality at 95% CI.

RESULTS

Significant differences were observed between gender and two of the threats of climate change - worry and being afraid as subjectively experienced by the participants. Females were more worried and afraid of climate change than males. On univariate and multivariate logistic regression, we found that various experiences of climate change were significantly associated with various scores of SDQ and much fewer of the experiences predicted SDQ scores. The same pattern was reflected in suicidality.

CONCLUSION

Climate change appears to be associated with mental health concerns and suicidality according to Kenyan high school students' reports with gender differences in some associations.

Alcohol's contribution to climate change and other environmental degradation: a call for research

Climate change is the single biggest health threat facing humanity. The production, distribution and consumption of many fast-moving consumer goods contribute substantially to climate change, principally through releasing greenhouse gas emissions. Here we consider just some of the ways that alcohol-already a key contributor to an array of health, social and economic burdens-exacerbates environmental harms and climate change. We explore current evidence on alcohol production as a resource- and energy-intensive process, contributing to significant environmental degradation through water usage and other carbon emission costs. We argue that the impacts of alcohol production on climate change have been minimally explored by researchers. Yet the extent of the unfolding catastrophe beholds us to consider all available ways to mitigate unnecessary emissions, including from products such as alcohol. We then turn to suggestions for a research agenda on this topic, including investigations of commercial determinants, inequalities and product advice to help consumers choose lower-carbon options. We conclude by arguing that public health researchers already have an array of methodological expertise and experience that is well placed to produce the evidence needed to inform regulation and efforts by alcohol producers and consumers to minimize their contributions to environmental harms.

The Climate Crisis and Breastfeeding: Opportunities for Resilience

The climate crisis is an emerging global challenge that poses potential risks to breastfeeding practices and outcomes. There are multifaceted effects of climate change affecting the breastfeeding dyad across environmental, societal, and human health dimensions. Breastfeeding support in the face of climate change will require solutions at the structural level-healthcare, community, and workplace settings-and at the mother-infant dyad level. Breastfeeding can additionally be an adaptive response to crisis situations and can mitigate some of the environmental challenges associated with climate change. Despite the undeniable significance of climate change on breastfeeding (and vice versa), our perspective as experts in the field is that this topic has not been systematically addressed. Although we highlight some of the challenges, potential solutions, and co-benefits of breastfeeding in the context of climate change, there are numerous issues that could be further explored and necessitate additional preparedness planning.

Psychiatric emergency department visits during the coronavirus disease-2019 pandemic

Background

Previous research has demonstrated the negative impact of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on mental health.

Aims

To examine changes in the Chinese psychiatric emergency department (PED) visits for mental health crises that occurred during the pandemic.

Methods

Before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, PED visit counts from the largest psychiatric hospital in China between 2018 and 2020 were investigated. Electronic medical records of 2020 PED visits were extracted during the COVID-19 pandemic period and compared for the same period of 2018 and 2019.

Results

Overall, PED visits per year increased from 1,767 in 2018 to 2210 (an increase of 25.1%) in 2019 and 2,648 (an increase of 49.9%) in 2020. Compared with 2 years before the epidemic, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the proportion of PED visits among patients with stress disorders, sleep disorders, and anxiety disorders increased significantly. In terms of the distribution of demographic characteristics, age shows a younger trend, while the gender difference is not significant.

Conclusion

These findings suggest that PED care-seeking increases during the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting the need to integrate mental health services for patients with stress, sleep, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorders during public health crises.

Exposures to psycholeptics, psychoanaleptics, and cardiovascular drugs reported to the PIC erfurt during heat waves from 2003 to 2018

Psycholeptics, psychoanaleptics, and cardiovascular drugs alter individual tolerance to extreme heat. To explore the influence of heat waves on their toxicity in acute overdose, we retrospectively analyzed all human exposures to psycholeptics and psychoanaleptics (PLAexp) as well as cardiovascular drugs (CVDexp) registered by the Poisons Information Center (PIC) Erfurt between June to September of the years 2003 to 2018 for frequency, age groups, sex, circumstances of exposure, and symptom severity. The results of the non-heat years (NHY) 2004-2005 and 2007-2014 (average air temperature June-September 16.2 °C) were compared to the results of the heat years (HY) 2003, 2006 and 2015-2018 (average air temperature June-September 17.5 °C). In total, 13,191 cases (HY 5,117; NHY 8,074) of PLAexp and 2,960 cases (HY 1,168; NHY 1,792) of CVDexp were registered. During HY, accidental PLAexp (11.2% versus 9.7%) and CVDexp (40.6% versus 36.8%) were more often seen. Severe symptoms were less frequent in PLAexp (4.4% versus 6.3%) and CVDexp (3.3% versus 4.9%). Although in HY, no higher rates of moderate or severe PLAexp and CVDexp were detected than in NHY, patients with these medications should be observed carefully during heat waves because of affected body's usual cooling mechanisms.

Knowledge Gaps and Research Priorities on the Health Effects of Heatwaves: A Systematic Review of Reviews

Although extreme weather events have played a constant role in human history, heatwaves (HWs) have become more frequent and intense in the past decades, causing concern especially in light of the increasing evidence on climate change. Despite the increasing number of reviews suggesting a relationship between heat and health, these reviews focus primarily on mortality, neglecting other important aspects. This systematic review of reviews gathered the available evidence from research syntheses conducted on HWs and health. Following the PRISMA guidelines, 2232 records were retrieved, and 283 reviews were ultimately included. Information was extracted from the papers and categorized by topics. Quantitative data were extracted from meta-analyses and, when not available, evidence was collected from systematic reviews. Overall, 187 reviews were non-systematic, while 96 were systematic, of which 27 performed a meta-analysis. The majority evaluated mortality, morbidity, or vulnerability, while the other topics were scarcely addressed. The following main knowledge gaps were identified: lack of a universally accepted definition of HW; scarce evidence on the HW-mental health relationship; no meta-analyses assessing the risk perception of HWs; scarcity of studies evaluating the efficacy of adaptation strategies and interventions. Future efforts should meet these priorities to provide high-quality evidence to stakeholders.