Climate change effects on human health in a gender perspective: some trends in Arctic research

Abstract

BackgroundClimate change and environmental pollution have become pressing concerns for the peoples in the Arctic region. Some researchers link climate change, transformations of living conditions and human health. A number of studies have also provided data on differentiating effects of climate change on women's and men's well-being and health.ObjectiveTo show how the issues of climate and environment change, human health and gender are addressed in current research in the Arctic. The main purpose of this article is not to give a full review but to draw attention to the gaps in knowledge and challenges in the Arctic research trends on climate change, human health and gender.MethodsA broad literature search was undertaken using a variety of sources from natural, medical, social science and humanities. The focus was on the keywords.ResultsDespite the evidence provided by many researchers on differentiating effects of climate change on well-being and health of women and men, gender perspective remains of marginal interest in climate change, environmental and health studies. At the same time, social sciences and humanities, and gender studies in particular, show little interest towards climate change impacts on human health in the Arctic. As a result, we still observe the division of labour between disciplines, the disciplinary-bound pictures of human development in the Arctic and terminology confusion.ConclusionEfforts to bring in a gender perspective in the Arctic research will be successful only when different disciplines would work together. Multidisciplinary research is a way to challenge academic/disciplinary homogeneity and their boundaries, to take advantage of the diversity of approaches and methods in production of new integrated knowledge. Cooperation and dialogue across disciplines will help to develop adequate indicators for monitoring human health and elaborating efficient policies and strategies to the benefit of both women and men in the Arctic.

How is adaptation, resilience, and vulnerability research engaging with gender?

“…Health was the focus of 23% (n=28) of articles, with a strong emphasis on examining gender in the context of determinants and experience of vulnerability (particularly temperature related). Eight health articles had gender as a main focus of the paper [13,[42][43][44][45][46][47][48]. Health focused research as a whole scored low on the engagement index, however, averaging 3.57 (the lowest documented), and was constrained by the limited examination of the specific needs of different genders in this work (i.e.…”

Sleep, physical activity, waist circumference and diet as factors that influence health for reproductive age women in northern Greenland

“…Sedentary lifestyles and low physical activity are increasingly common in the Arctic, with less time spent engaged in land-based practices that require physical exertion (8). For women, this means less time processing harvested foods and decreased domestic activity (9). A recent population health survey in Greenland found central obesity in women increased from 31.3% in 1993–1994 to 54.2% in 2005–2010, while for men the percentages are much lower, rising from 16.0% in 1993–1994 to 25.4% in 2005–2010 (10).…”

Indicators of food and water security in an Arctic Health context – results from an international workshop discussion

“…Thus, in August 2012, a general search on the literature published from January 2000 to September 2012, as well as a search in official open-source databases related to food and water security issues was performed with a focus on measures already described and used in an Arctic health context (2). The goal was to identify universal and informative summary measures to demonstrate temporal changes in food and water security in the Arctic population, according to established monitoring methodology (8), and the indicators based on individual measures should be presented in gender-divided tables, since climate change affects men and women differently (9,10). It was also stated that availability of traditional food would require special attention, not least because of its high importance from an indigenous perspective (11–16).…”