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Zavala MD, Cejas C, Rubinstein A, Lopez A. Gender Inequities in the Impact of Climate Change on Health: A Scoping Review. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND PUBLIC HEALTH 2024; 21:1093. [PMID: 39200702 PMCID: PMC11353975 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph21081093] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/03/2024] [Revised: 08/07/2024] [Accepted: 08/13/2024] [Indexed: 09/02/2024]
Abstract
In the 21st century, climate change has emerged as a critical global public health challenge. Women experience the most severe impacts of climate change, intensifying pre-existing gender inequalities. This scoping review aims to explore the intersection of climate change, health, and gender, considering the social determinants of health. The methods for this review follow the Arksey and O'Malley framework for a scoping review and the PRISMA-ScR checklist. The review, covering January 2019 to February 2024, included PubMed, LILACS, and SciELO databases. We identified 71 studies with 19 meeting the inclusion criteria. The results revealed the differential effects of climate change on health according to gender in areas such as mental health, reproductive health, gender-based violence, occupational health, and health issues associated with heat and air pollution. Our findings also elucidated how socio-economic and gender inequities intersect, exacerbating the risk of experiencing these effects. In conclusion, the study highlights a clear need for gender-sensitive climate policies and interventions to address these disparities and protect vulnerable populations from the health impacts of climate change.
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Affiliation(s)
- Melina Denise Zavala
- Center for Implementation and Innovation in Health Policies, Institute for Clinical Effectiveness and Health Policy, Buenos Aires C1414CPV, Argentina; (C.C.); (A.R.); (A.L.)
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Liu X, Berberian AG, Wang S, Cushing LJ. Hurricane Harvey and the risk of spontaneous preterm and early-term birth. Environ Epidemiol 2024; 8:e312. [PMID: 38799265 PMCID: PMC11115986 DOI: 10.1097/ee9.0000000000000312] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/12/2023] [Accepted: 04/16/2024] [Indexed: 05/29/2024] Open
Abstract
Background Hurricane Harvey made landfall in August 2017 and resulted in catastrophic flooding in Houston, Texas. Prior studies of hurricanes and preterm birth have found conflicting results. We tested the hypotheses that exposure to Hurricane Harvey was associated with a higher risk of spontaneous pre- and early-term birth and assessed vulnerable subpopulations. Methods We conducted a retrospective study of singleton births using administrative birth records in the nine-county greater Houston area from 2015 to 2019. We estimated the likelihood of pre- and early-term births using logistic regression, comparing births occurring during or within 1, 2, or 4 weeks of Hurricane Harvey to unexposed reference periods encompassing the same dates 2 years prior and after. Stratified models assessed effect modification by degree of flooding, birth parent age, high- vs. low-risk pregnancy, race/ethnicity, and prenatal care. Results Among 15,564 births, we found no association between exposure to Hurricane Harvey and spontaneous preterm birth within 1 week adjusted (odds ratio [OR], 1.06; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.91, 1.25) but a 14% higher odds of spontaneous early-term birth (OR, 1.14; 95% CI = 1.04, 1.25). The odds of early-term birth were even higher in neighborhoods with severe flooding (OR, 1.21; 95% CI = 1.05, 1.38), segregated neighborhoods (OR, 1.23; 95% CI = 1.03, 1.47), and among foreign-born Hispanics (OR, 1.21; 95% CI = 1.04, 1.53) and pregnant people receiving no prenatal care (OR, 1.37; 95% CI = 1.03, 1.82). Effect estimates were attenuated or null when considering 2-week or 4-week lags to define exposure. Conclusions Hurricane Harvey was associated with higher odds of spontaneous early-term birth up to 1 week later, especially among socially marginalized populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xinyue Liu
- Department of Epidemiology, Jonathan and Karin Fielding School of Public Health, University of California Los Angeles, California
| | - Alique G. Berberian
- Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Jonathan and Karin Fielding School of Public Health, University of California Los Angeles, California
| | - Sophia Wang
- Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, University of California Los Angeles, California
| | - Lara J. Cushing
- Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Jonathan and Karin Fielding School of Public Health, University of California Los Angeles, California
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Huang W, Yang Z, Zhang Y, Vogt T, Armstrong B, Yu W, Xu R, Yu P, Liu Y, Gasparrini A, Hundessa S, Lavigne E, Molina T, Geiger T, Guo YL, Otto C, Hales S, Pourzand F, Pan SC, Ju K, Ritchie EA, Li S, Guo Y. Tropical cyclone-specific mortality risks and the periods of concern: A multicountry time-series study. PLoS Med 2024; 21:e1004341. [PMID: 38252630 PMCID: PMC10843109 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1004341] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/08/2023] [Revised: 02/05/2024] [Accepted: 01/03/2024] [Indexed: 01/24/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND More intense tropical cyclones (TCs) are expected in the future under a warming climate scenario, but little is known about their mortality effect pattern across countries and over decades. We aim to evaluate the TC-specific mortality risks, periods of concern (POC) and characterize the spatiotemporal pattern and exposure-response (ER) relationships on a multicountry scale. METHODS AND FINDINGS Daily all-cause, cardiovascular, and respiratory mortality among the general population were collected from 494 locations in 18 countries or territories during 1980 to 2019. Daily TC exposures were defined when the maximum sustained windspeed associated with a TC was ≥34 knots using a parametric wind field model at a 0.5° × 0.5° resolution. We first estimated the TC-specific mortality risks and POC using an advanced flexible statistical framework of mixed Poisson model, accounting for the population changes, natural variation, seasonal and day of the week effects. Then, a mixed meta-regression model was used to pool the TC-specific mortality risks to estimate the overall and country-specific ER relationships of TC characteristics (windspeed, rainfall, and year) with mortality. Overall, 47.7 million all-cause, 15.5 million cardiovascular, and 4.9 million respiratory deaths and 382 TCs were included in our analyses. An overall average POC of around 20 days was observed for TC-related all-cause and cardiopulmonary mortality, with relatively longer POC for the United States of America, Brazil, and Taiwan (>30 days). The TC-specific relative risks (RR) varied substantially, ranging from 1.04 to 1.42, 1.07 to 1.77, and 1.12 to 1.92 among the top 100 TCs with highest RRs for all-cause, cardiovascular, and respiratory mortality, respectively. At country level, relatively higher TC-related mortality risks were observed in Guatemala, Brazil, and New Zealand for all-cause, cardiovascular, and respiratory mortality, respectively. We found an overall monotonically increasing and approximately linear ER curve of TC-related maximum sustained windspeed and cumulative rainfall with mortality, with heterogeneous patterns across countries and regions. The TC-related mortality risks were generally decreasing from 1980 to 2019, especially for the Philippines, Taiwan, and the USA, whereas potentially increasing trends in TC-related all-cause and cardiovascular mortality risks were observed for Japan. CONCLUSIONS The TC mortality risks and POC varied greatly across TC events, locations, and countries. To minimize the TC-related health burdens, targeted strategies are particularly needed for different countries and regions, integrating epidemiological evidence on region-specific POC and ER curves that consider across-TC variability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wenzhong Huang
- Climate, Air Quality Research Unit, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
| | - Zhengyu Yang
- Climate, Air Quality Research Unit, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
| | - Yiwen Zhang
- Climate, Air Quality Research Unit, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
| | - Thomas Vogt
- Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Potsdam, Germany
| | - Ben Armstrong
- Department of Public Health Environments and Society, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom
| | - Wenhua Yu
- Climate, Air Quality Research Unit, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
| | - Rongbin Xu
- Climate, Air Quality Research Unit, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
| | - Pei Yu
- Climate, Air Quality Research Unit, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
| | - Yanming Liu
- Climate, Air Quality Research Unit, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
| | - Antonio Gasparrini
- Department of Public Health Environments and Society, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom
- Centre on Climate Change & Planetary Health, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom
- Centre for Statistical Methodology, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom
| | - Samuel Hundessa
- Climate, Air Quality Research Unit, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
| | - Eric Lavigne
- Environmental Health Science and Research Bureau, Health Canada, Ottawa, Canada
- School of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada
| | - Tomas Molina
- Department Applied Physics, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Tobias Geiger
- Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD), Regional Climate Office Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany
| | - Yue Leon Guo
- Department of Environmental and Occupational Medicine, National Taiwan University (NTU) and NTU Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
- National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Health Research Institutes, Miaoli, Taiwan
- Institute of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Christian Otto
- Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Potsdam, Germany
| | - Simon Hales
- Department of Public Health, University of Otago, Wellington, New Zealand
| | - Farnaz Pourzand
- Department of Public Health, University of Otago, Wellington, New Zealand
| | - Shih-Chun Pan
- National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Health Research Institutes, Miaoli, Taiwan
| | - Ke Ju
- Climate, Air Quality Research Unit, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
| | - Elizabeth A. Ritchie
- School of Earth Atmosphere and Environment, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
- Department of Civil Engineering, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
| | - Shanshan Li
- Climate, Air Quality Research Unit, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
| | - Yuming Guo
- Climate, Air Quality Research Unit, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
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