Article type
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Abstract
Background: climate change poses current and future challenges to public health. There is potential for climate change to directly or indirectly impact the risk of human infectious diseases. To inform policy and decision making in preparation for potential changes to infectious disease risks in Canada, a rapid scoping review was prioritized to identify what we currently know and where there are knowledge gaps. A diverse group of infectious disease and climate change experts tasked with estimating and planning for climate change in Canada used this information.
Objectives: we conducted a rapid scoping review (rScR) to characterize the global evidence on the impact of climate change or weather on infectious diseases in humans that are not transmitted by food or water.
Methods: we created a rScR protocol a priori to ensure reproducible, transparent, and consistent results. We conducted a comprehensive electronic search in relevant bibliographic databases and an extensive grey literature search of targeted government websites. Two review authors used tools to independently screen citations and one review author characterized relevant full-text articles.
Results: the rScR included 1331 unique articles relevant to the impact of weather, climate, climate change or a combination of two or all of these on infectious diseases. We categorized the evidence as representing three different but complimentary research areas: climate change (717 articles), weather-related changes such as precipitation, temperature, humidity (566), and extreme weather events (41). Developing a search strategy was particularly challenging for this topic as there are a variety of terms used to describe climate change and there are many infectious diseases that needed to be considered. We included and characterized both primary and secondary literature, which led to interesting findings across the three research areas. There is a low proportion of primary research (12.3%, 88/717 articles) among climate change articles, whereas 82% (464/566) of articles on weather were classified as primary research. We will present additional results, including specific infectious diseases, locations of study, type of literature captured, and how this information has been used.
Conclusions: there were many challenges associated with this rScR including the development of a complex search strategy, identification and procurement of relevant documents, and the volume of secondary literature related to climate change relative to primary literature. The impact of climate change on infectious diseases is a complex issue that will continue to be a public health priority. Thus, understanding the existing evidence and knowledge gaps, and the ongoing engagement of experts across disciplines will drive both research and public health adaptation, prevention, and mitigation.
Patient or healthcare consumer involvement: not applicable
Objectives: we conducted a rapid scoping review (rScR) to characterize the global evidence on the impact of climate change or weather on infectious diseases in humans that are not transmitted by food or water.
Methods: we created a rScR protocol a priori to ensure reproducible, transparent, and consistent results. We conducted a comprehensive electronic search in relevant bibliographic databases and an extensive grey literature search of targeted government websites. Two review authors used tools to independently screen citations and one review author characterized relevant full-text articles.
Results: the rScR included 1331 unique articles relevant to the impact of weather, climate, climate change or a combination of two or all of these on infectious diseases. We categorized the evidence as representing three different but complimentary research areas: climate change (717 articles), weather-related changes such as precipitation, temperature, humidity (566), and extreme weather events (41). Developing a search strategy was particularly challenging for this topic as there are a variety of terms used to describe climate change and there are many infectious diseases that needed to be considered. We included and characterized both primary and secondary literature, which led to interesting findings across the three research areas. There is a low proportion of primary research (12.3%, 88/717 articles) among climate change articles, whereas 82% (464/566) of articles on weather were classified as primary research. We will present additional results, including specific infectious diseases, locations of study, type of literature captured, and how this information has been used.
Conclusions: there were many challenges associated with this rScR including the development of a complex search strategy, identification and procurement of relevant documents, and the volume of secondary literature related to climate change relative to primary literature. The impact of climate change on infectious diseases is a complex issue that will continue to be a public health priority. Thus, understanding the existing evidence and knowledge gaps, and the ongoing engagement of experts across disciplines will drive both research and public health adaptation, prevention, and mitigation.
Patient or healthcare consumer involvement: not applicable
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