The Future of Climate Epidemiology: Opportunities for Advancing Health Research in the Context of Climate Change

Abstract In the coming decades, climate change is expected to dramatically affect communities worldwide, altering the patterns of many ambient exposures and disasters, including extreme temperatures, heat waves, wildfires, droughts, and floods. These exposures, in turn, can affect risks for a variet...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:American journal of epidemiology 2019-05, Vol.188 (5), p.866-872
Main Authors: Anderson, G Brooke, Barnes, Elizabeth A, Bell, Michelle L, Dominici, Francesca
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Climate Change
Climate science
Cooperative Behavior
Disasters
Drought
Environmental policy
Epidemiology
Exposure
Health risks
Heat waves
Humans
Interprofessional Relations
Population Dynamics
Public health
Seasons
Socioeconomic Factors
Temperature
Uncertainty
Wildfires
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Summary:Abstract In the coming decades, climate change is expected to dramatically affect communities worldwide, altering the patterns of many ambient exposures and disasters, including extreme temperatures, heat waves, wildfires, droughts, and floods. These exposures, in turn, can affect risks for a variety of human diseases and health outcomes. Climate epidemiology plays an important role in informing policy related to climate change and its threats to public health. Climate epidemiology leverages deep, integrated collaborations between epidemiologists and climate scientists to understand the current and potential future impacts of climate-related exposures on human health. A variety of recent and ongoing developments in climate science are creating new avenues for epidemiologic contributions. Here, we discuss the contributions of climate epidemiology and describe some key current research directions, including research to better characterize uncertainty in climate health projections. We end by outlining 3 developing areas of climate science that are creating opportunities for high-impact epidemiologic advances in the near future: 1) climate attribution studies, 2) subseasonal to seasonal forecasts, and 3) decadal predictions.
ISSN:0002-9262
1476-6256
DOI:10.1093/aje/kwz034