Dataset Information

Effect of Extreme Weather Events on Mental Health: A Narrative Synthesis and Meta-Analysis for the UK.

ABSTRACT: Extreme weather events are increasing in frequency and severity as a consequence of climate change and pose a significant threat to population mental health. This is the case even in temperate regions such as the United Kingdom (UK) where flooding and heat waves are forecast to become more common. We conducted a systematic review to quantify the prevalence and describe the causes of common mental health problems in populations exposed to extreme weather events in the UK. We searched Web of Science, EMBASE and PsycINFO for studies that measured the prevalence of depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in populations exposed to extreme weather events in the UK, published up to 12 December 2019. We included 17 studies, four of which were included in meta-analyses to determine the point prevalence of common mental health problems in the period within 12 months following extreme weather events. The point prevalence was 19.8% for anxiety (k = 4; n = 1458; 95% CI 7.42 to 32.15), 21.35% for depression (k = 4; n = 1458; 95% CI 9.04 to 33.65) and 30.36% for PTSD (k = 4; n = 1359; 95% CI 11.68 to 49.05). Key factors that affected mental ill health in people exposed to flooding were water depth and absence of flood warnings. Displacement from home underscored the narratives associated with people's perceptions of the impact of flooding. The high prevalence of common mental health problems suggests that the prevention of mental ill health in populations at risk or exposed to extreme weather events should be a UK public health priority.

SUBMITTER: Cruz J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7699288 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Effect of Extreme Weather Events on Mental Health: A Narrative Synthesis and Meta-Analysis for the UK.

Cruz Joana J White Piran C L PCL Bell Andrew A Coventry Peter A PA

International journal of environmental research and public health 20201119 22

Extreme weather events are increasing in frequency and severity as a consequence of climate change and pose a significant threat to population mental health. This is the case even in temperate regions such as the United Kingdom (UK) where flooding and heat waves are forecast to become more common. We conducted a systematic review to quantify the prevalence and describe the causes of common mental health problems in populations exposed to extreme weather events in the UK. We searched Web of Scien ...[more]

PMID: 33227944

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Project description:At a global level, climate change is expected to result in more frequent and higher-intensity weather events, with impacts ranging from inconvenient to catastrophic. The potential for disasters to act as "focusing events" for policy change, including adaptation to climate change risk, is well known. Moreover, local action is an important element of climate change adaptation and related risk management efforts. As such, there is a good reason to expect local communities to mobilize in response to disaster events, both with immediate response and recovery-focused activities, as well as longer-term preparedness and adaptation-focused public policy changes. However, scholars also note that the experience of disaster does not always yield policy change; indeed, disasters can also result in policy inertia and failure, perhaps as often or more often than major policy change. This study poses two key research questions. First, we ask to what degree policy change occurs in communities impacted by an extreme weather event. Second, we seek to understand the conditions that lead to adaptation-oriented policy adoption in response to an extreme weather event. Our results suggest two main recipes for future-oriented policy adoption in the wake of an extreme weather event. For both recipes, a high-impact event is a necessary condition for future-oriented policy adoption. In the first recipe for change, policy adoption occurs in Democratic communities with highly focused media attention. The second, less expected recipe for change involves Republican communities that have experienced other uncommon weather events in the recent past. We use a comparative case approach with 15 cases and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis methods. Our approach adds to the existing literature on policy change and local adaptation by selecting a mid-N range of cases where extreme weather events have the potential to act as focusing events, thereby sidestepping selection on the dependent variable. Our approach also takes advantage of a novel method for measuring attention, the latent Dirichlet allocation approach.

Project description:BackgroundThe frequency and destructiveness of hurricanes and related extreme weather events (e.g., cyclones, severe storms) have been increasing due to climate change. A growing body of evidence suggests that victims of hurricanes have increased incidence of cardiovascular disease (CVD), likely due to increased stressors around time of the hurricane and in their aftermath.ObjectivesThe objective was to systematically examine the evidence of the association between hurricanes (and related extreme weather events) and adverse CVD outcomes with the goal of understanding the gaps in the literature.MethodsA comprehensive literature search of population-level and cohort studies focused on CVD outcomes (i.e., myocardial infarction, stroke, and heart failure) related to hurricanes, cyclones, and severe storms was performed in the following databases from inception to December 2021: Ovid MEDLINE, Ovid EMBASE, Web of Science, and The Cochrane Library. Studies retrieved were then screened for eligibility against predefined inclusion/exclusion criteria. Studies were then qualitatively synthesized based on the time frame of the CVD outcomes studied and special populations that were studied. Gaps in the literature were identified based on this synthesis.ResultsOf the 1,103 citations identified, 48 met our overall inclusion criteria. We identified articles describing the relationship between CVD and extreme weather, primarily hurricanes, based on data from the United States (42), Taiwan (3), Japan (2), and France (1). Outcomes included CVD and myocardial infarction-related hospitalizations (30 studies) and CVVD-related mortality (7 studies). Most studies used a retrospective study design, including one case-control study, 39 cohort studies, and 4 time-series studies.DiscussionAlthough we identified a number of papers that reported evaluations of extreme weather events and short-term adverse CVD outcomes, there were important gaps in the literature. These gaps included a) a lack of rigorous long-term evaluation of hurricane exposure, b) lack of investigation of hurricane exposure on vulnerable populations regarding issues related to environmental justice, c) absence of research on the exposure of multiple hurricanes on populations, and d) absence of an exploration of mechanisms leading to worsened CVD outcomes. Future research should attempt to fill these gaps, thus providing an important evidence base for future disaster-related policy. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP11252.

Dataset Information

Effect of Extreme Weather Events on Mental Health: A Narrative Synthesis and Meta-Analysis for the UK.

Publications

Effect of Extreme Weather Events on Mental Health: A Narrative Synthesis and Meta-Analysis for the UK.

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