Drought, drying and mental health: Lessons from recent experiences for future risk-lessening policies

McMichael, Anthony J.

doi:10.1111/j.1440-1584.2011.01217.x

Cited by 13 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…Much attention has been given in recent times to the potential adverse health effects of district or community level adversity across rural regions (e.g., drought, perceived financial prosperity and decline of rural community infrastructure) [11,12]. This study aims to investigate these relationships between individual-level factors and contextual district-level factors on alcohol use within rural and remote communities in an Australian setting.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Individual and district-level predictors of alcohol use: cross sectional findings from a rural mental health survey in Australia

et al. 2012

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BackgroundExcessive alcohol use is a significant problem in rural and remote Australia. The factors contributing to patterns of alcohol use have not been adequately explained, yet the geographic variation in rates suggests a potential contribution of district-level factors, such as socio-economic disadvantage, rates of population change, environmental adversity, and remoteness from services/population centres. This paper aims to investigate individual-level and district-level predictors of alcohol use in a sample of rural adults.MethodsUsing baseline survey data (N = 1,981) from the population-based Australian Rural Mental Health Study of community dwelling residents randomly selected from the Australia electoral roll, hierarchal logistic regression models were fitted for three outcomes: 1) at-risk alcohol use, indicated by Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test scores ≥8; 2) high alcohol consumption (> 40 drinks per month); and 3) lifetime consequences of alcohol use. Predictor variables included demographic factors, pre-dispositional factors, recent difficulties and support, mental health, rural exposure and district-level contextual factors.ResultsGender, age, marital status, and personality made the largest contribution to at-risk alcohol use. Five or more adverse life events in the past 12 months were also independently associated with at-risk alcohol use (Adjusted Odds Ratio [AOR] 3.3, 99%CI 1.2, 8.9). When these individual-level factors were controlled for, at-risk alcohol use was associated with having spent a lower proportion of time living in a rural district (AOR 1.7, 99%CI 1.3, 2.9). Higher alcohol consumption per month was associated with higher district-level socio-economic ranking, indicating less disadvantage (AOR 1.2, 99%CI 1.02, 1.4). Rural exposure and district-level contextual factors were not significantly associated with lifetime consequences of alcohol use.ConclusionsAlthough recent attention has been directed towards the potential adverse health effects of district or community level adversity across rural regions, our study found relatively few district-level factors contributing to at-risk alcohol consumption after controlling for individual-level factors. Population-based prevention strategies may be most beneficial in rural areas with a higher socio-economic ranking, while individual attention should be focused towards rural residents with multiple recent adverse life events, and people who have spent less time residing in a rural area.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Individual and district-level predictors of alcohol use: cross sectional findings from a rural mental health survey in Australia

et al. 2012

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“…Drought can have impacts on known health risk factors such as inadequate or unsafe water for consumption and sanitation, increased population displacement, and disruption of local health services. It also impacts on acute and chronic health effects including malnutrition, increased risk of communicable diseases, respiratory conditions, psycho-social stress and mental health disorders [ 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 ].…”

Section: Drought a Silent Public Health Disastermentioning

confidence: 99%

Managing the Health Impacts of Drought in Brazil

Sena

Barcellos

Freitas

et al. 2014

IJERPH

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Drought is often a hidden risk with the potential to become a silent public health disaster. It is difficult to define precisely when it starts or when it is over, and although it is a climatological event, its impacts depend on other human activities, and are intensified by social vulnerability. In Brazil, half of all natural disaster events are drought related, and they cause half of the impacts in number of affected persons. One large affected area is the semiarid region of Brazil’s Northeast, which has historically been affected by drought. Many health and well-being indicators in this region are worse than the rest of the country, based on an analysis of 5565 municipalities using available census data for 1991, 2000 and 2010, which allowed separating the 1133 municipalities affected by drought in order to compare them with the rest of the country. Although great progress has been made in reducing social and economic vulnerability, climate change and the expected changes in the semiarid region in the next few decades call for a review of current programs, particularly in public health, and the planning of new interventions with local communities. This study reviews the literature, analyzes available data and identifies possible actions and actors. The aim is to ensure there will be sufficient and sustainable local adaptive capacity and resilience, for a population already living within the limits of environmental vulnerability.

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“…Climate-related risks generally impinge on whole communities, whole populations, and will typically act over long periods of time, often via complex multi-stage causal paths. That is, these climatic-environmental changes are not just another entry on the list of discrete environmental hazardous exposures (such as the many documented toxic workplace exposures, elevated lead concentrations in local air, water and soil, and locally generated air pollutants) that predominantly affect unlucky individuals, occupational groups or local communities (McMichael, 1999).…”

Section: Types Of Climate-related Health Impactsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Before considering categories of health consequences of a 14°C Australia it is of interest to look at the health-and-survival impacts of three of the great 24°C cooling events in the long history and prehistory of human societies (McMichael, 2012). Three distinctive cooling episodes, the first two pre-historical and the third one historical, reflect the impacts on human health and survival of major volcanic eruptions, casting a veil of cooling ash, aerosols and debris around the world.…”

Section: Can We Learn From the Distant Past?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Third, during the 'ad 536 Event, attributed to a volcanic eruption, average global temperature fell by 23-4°C and persisted for 5-10 years throughout Eurasia and beyond. This may have triggered the (bubonic) Plague of Justinian, imported from northern Africa, and breaking out in Constantinople and then throughout the Eastern Roman Empire (McMichael, 2012). This brief cooling may also have facilitated the survival of infected fleas travelling north from Ethiopia (or other ancient Eastern African grain-export ports) to the Mediterranean coast with grain shipments and their stowaway rats, destined for Constantinople.…”

Section: Can We Learn From the Distant Past?mentioning

confidence: 99%

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