SPATIAL AND SOCIODEMOGRAPHIC HETEROGENEITIES IN CLIMATE-RELATED MORTALITY: A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW

William Kemp, Università di Bologna
Sirinya Kaikeaw , Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna
Rosanna Gualdi, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna
Raya Muttarak, University of Bologna

Global temperatures continue to break records. Accompanying heat extremes is a sizeable increase in natural hazards; wildfires, floods and storms, affecting each world region. Adapting to climate extremes has quickly become a public health priority, but with limited scientific consensus on how spatial and sociodemographic heterogeneity affect the climate extreme and mortality relationship, policy effectiveness will be restricted. This review aims to analyse inconsistency in the literature and provide a cohesive body of evidence addressing variation related to factors such as urban/rural, age, sex, education in relation to the association between climate extremes and mortality risk. 3,373 articles were screened for the review. 466 studies were retrieved: 430 articles for temperature-related mortality, 36 for natural hazards. Preliminary findings found older persons (65+) and those with less education at greatest excess mortality risk during episodes of extreme temperature. Urban areas, posed a mortality risk at higher temperatures; rural areas were more exposed to cold risk, due to a lack of access to infrastructure. Effect of sex on temperature-related mortality varied by study, with most research identifying women of greater risk to both extreme heat and cold. Women, children, and those in rural areas were at greatest individual risk from natural hazards. A further screening will be conducted to limit studies retrieved to those which quantitatively analyse the influence of the selected socioeconomic and geographical factors on climate-related mortality. A meta-analysis will then be performed, extracting effect estimates to produce models analysing the influence of these individual factors on climate-related mortality.

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 Presented in Session P2. Health, Mortality, Ageing - Aperitivo