Effects of climate change on health and wellbeing: A systematic review

The health and wellbeing effects of climate change events have gained much attention from decision makers and academia over the past decade. Using a systematic review approach, this paper aims to present an improved understanding of how different climate change events have impacted on people's health and/or wellbeing. A thorough review of 93 articles following a PRISMA and SALSA protocol revealed nine climate change events, of which heat waves and extreme ambient temperature were found to be closely associated with the most cited illnesses, including physical problems and failure of one's circulatory and respiratory systems. Age and gender are the critical factors among others that differentiate the effects of climate change on health. Although the formulation of heatwave response plans has been adopted in many countries, the findings of this study suggest that design for climate-adaptive built environments is of paramount importance. This paper provides insights into climate change adaption strategies from a health perspective. The findings can be used by disaster risk reduction (DRR) policymakers and practitioners to identify the areas to target in their climate change agenda in order to enhance the adaptive ability of communities.