An Assessment of Climate Change and Health Vulnerability and Adaptation in Dominica

Schnitter, R.; Verret, Marielle; Berry, Peter; Fook, Tanya Chung Tiam; Hales, Simon; Lal, Aparna; Edwards, Sally

doi:10.3390/ijerph16010070

Cited by 36 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Even still, the WHO assessment guidelines were useful in guiding methodology with regard to the selection of the geographic region, health outcomes of interest, participant selection, data collection methods and tools. While the application of VA assessment guidelines in this study is not its first use in the Caribbean [42], it is the first to focus on non-communicable diseases, providing support for the utility of the guidelines to research a variety of health outcomes. A limitation of this study is the involvement of only health professionals to understand the current and future vulnerabilities to climate change.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“There’s Not Really Much Consideration Given to the Effect of the Climate on NCDs”—Exploration of Knowledge and Attitudes of Health Professionals on a Climate Change-NCD Connection in Barbados

Springer

Elliott

2019

IJERPH

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Despite widespread awareness of the rise of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and the growing threat of climate change, little research has explored future health outcomes that will occur at the intersection of these challenges. Ten Barbadian health professionals were interviewed to assess their knowledge of health risks of climate change as it relates to NCDs in Barbados as a case study of a small island state at risk. There is widespread concern among health professionals about the current and future prevalence of non-communicable diseases among Barbadians. There is less concern about the future burden of NCDs in the context of a changing climate, largely because of a lack of knowledge among the majority of the health experts interviewed. Those knowledgeable about potential connections noted the difficulty that climate change would pose to the prevention and management of NCDs, given the impacts of climate stressors to food security, the built environment, and physiological and psychosocial health impacts. Lack of awareness among health professionals of the risk climate change poses to NCD prevalence and impact is reflective of the country’s health priorities that fail to recognize the risk of climate change. We recommend efforts to disseminate information about climate change to stakeholders in the health sector to increase awareness.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“There’s Not Really Much Consideration Given to the Effect of the Climate on NCDs”—Exploration of Knowledge and Attitudes of Health Professionals on a Climate Change-NCD Connection in Barbados

Springer

Elliott

2019

IJERPH

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“…They may also have few climate and health models for application, low capacity within country teams to conduct the analysis, and limited financial resources and time to contract appropriate academic teams to conduct more sophisticated studies. Schnitter et al [60] reported that challenges encountered in completing a V&A in Dominica in 2015 included insufficient resources and expertise to undertake modeling of future health impacts for more than one issue (vector-borne diseases), limited health data for analysis, and challenges prioritizing adaptation options.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing Health Vulnerabilities and Adaptation to Climate Change: A Review of International Progress

Berry

Enright

Shumake-Guillemot

et al. 2018

IJERPH

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Climate change is increasing risks to human health and to the health systems that seek to protect the safety and well-being of populations. Health authorities require information about current associations between health outcomes and weather or climate, vulnerable populations, projections of future risks and adaptation opportunities in order to reduce exposures, empower individuals to take needed protective actions and build climate-resilient health systems. An increasing number of health authorities from local to national levels seek this information by conducting climate change and health vulnerability and adaptation assessments. While assessments can provide valuable information to plan for climate change impacts, the results of many studies are not helping to build the global evidence-base of knowledge in this area. They are also often not integrated into adaptation decision making, sometimes because the health sector is not involved in climate change policy making processes at the national level. Significant barriers related to data accessibility, a limited number of climate and health models, uncertainty in climate projections, and a lack of funding and expertise, particularly in developing countries, challenge health authority efforts to conduct rigorous assessments and apply the findings. This paper examines the evolution of climate change and health vulnerability and adaptation assessments, including guidance developed for such projects, the number of assessments that have been conducted globally and implementation of the findings to support health adaptation action. Greater capacity building that facilitates assessments from local to national scales will support collaborative efforts to protect health from current climate hazards and future climate change. Health sector officials will benefit from additional resources and partnership opportunities to ensure that evidence about climate change impacts on health is effectively translated into needed actions to build health resilience.

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“…Households with a family member employed outside the camp will be high capacity. Household involved the emergency planning will be highly capacity (19) Data analysis…”

Section: Selection Of Indicators and Weights For Hazard Vulnerabilitmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Capacity refers to the ability to react to and reduce the adverse effects of potential or experienced hazards. It includes both current community capacity to cope with the public health hazards (epidemic diseases) in camps and future action to improve the ability to prepare (19). Capacity adaptive to public health risks depends on several factors such as economic wealth, knowledge about disease transmission and prevention, institutions, availability of basic services, community engagement, and participation (20).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Public Health Risk Assessment Model (PH-RAM) for Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps – A case study of North Darfur, Sudan

Mahmoud¹,

Pal²,

Bashier³

2020

Preprint

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Background: Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in North Darfur of Sudan have been experiencing serious public health risks such as high prevalence rate, and outbreaks of communicable diseases. Public health risk assessment is complex as researchers engaged in disaster science and management use different quantitative models with different interpretations. The objective of the present study is to proposes methodology for developing Public Health Risk Assessment Model (PH-RAM) to quantify and conceptualizing public health risk as a function of hazard, vulnerability, and capacity.Methods: Household-level public health risk has been assessed integrating the three main component indices, hazard, vulnerability, and capacity, using primary data collected from households of the three IDP camps. Administered survey was performed in 326 households in three IDP camps (Shangil Tobaya, Zamzam, and Abu Shouk) using cluster sampling technique. Households were classified into four public health risk levels, i.e., low risk, moderate risk, high risk, and very high risk. Results: The result shows that the levels of public health risk varied significantly across households in three camps. Households of the Shangil Tobaya camp (in a rural area) were found to be the most vulnerable and the most at high risk to communicable diseases compared to other two camps because of insufficient health services, inadequate water, poor sanitation, and low level of income. The study recommended, mitigation and prevention measures to reduce the factors that are increased the vulnerability of the IDPs to health risks. Conclusions: Our study shows that the suggested PH-RAM could be served as household-level public health risk assessment tools in the context of IDPs at the local, national and regional levels.

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An Assessment of Climate Change and Health Vulnerability and Adaptation in Dominica

Cited by 36 publications

References 17 publications

“There’s Not Really Much Consideration Given to the Effect of the Climate on NCDs”—Exploration of Knowledge and Attitudes of Health Professionals on a Climate Change-NCD Connection in Barbados

“There’s Not Really Much Consideration Given to the Effect of the Climate on NCDs”—Exploration of Knowledge and Attitudes of Health Professionals on a Climate Change-NCD Connection in Barbados

Assessing Health Vulnerabilities and Adaptation to Climate Change: A Review of International Progress

Public Health Risk Assessment Model (PH-RAM) for Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps – A case study of North Darfur, Sudan

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