Impact of Climate Change on Human Health in Thailand: A Literature Review

抄録

This study aims to find and summarize published studies that examined the effects of climate change on human health and diseases in Thailand by conducting a literature review using the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis guidelines between October 17, 2023, and January 31, 2024. We searched PubMed and OvidSP for relevant research. We included studies that were written in English or Thai; primary research focused on climate change or its subsets (natural disasters or climate issues, such as rising temperatures and altered weather patterns that increase the frequency, intensity, and severity of many natural disasters and climate issues); focused on human health; indexed by PubMed or OvidSP; available as published research with full-text journal articles; and published in 2013 or later. Our search yielded 53 relevant articles. These articles identified five main categories of climate issues: temperature, rainfall/precipitation, humidity, wind speed, and flooding. We identified five categories of health issues: dengue, respiratory diseases and infections, malaria, skin diseases/symptoms, and other health issues. The most studied relationship is between temperature and dengue. Most articles reported the harmful effects of climate issues on health, although four reported opposite effects, and seven reported no significant associations. Among the 53 articles, ten utilized prediction models. The main goal of this review is to summarize current research to guide future studies and assist policymakers in prioritizing climate-related health policies in Thailand. Study limitations include the use of only two databases, the restriction to articles from 2013 onwards, and the inclusion of only articles in English and Thai, which may have limited the number of articles found for this literature review.