Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Aug;44(4):421-456.
doi: 10.1007/s10935-022-00718-8. Epub 2022 Dec 13.

Measuring Impact of Climate Change on Indigenous Health in the Background of Multiple Disadvantages: A Scoping Review for Equitable Public Health Policy Formulation

Monalisha Sahu  1 , Biswadip Chattopadhyay  2 , Ranjan Das  1 , Sakshi Chaturvedi  3
Affiliations

Measuring Impact of Climate Change on Indigenous Health in the Background of Multiple Disadvantages: A Scoping Review for Equitable Public Health Policy Formulation

Monalisha Sahu et al. J Prev (2022). 2023 Aug.

Abstract

How climate change is uniquely affecting Indigenous health remains a very less explored area in the existing research literature. The imperative of inclusive climate action to protect indigenous health multiplies manifolds due to their unique vulnerabilities owing to predominant dependence on natural resources and multiple disadvantages faced. The current article attempted to add to the evidence pool regarding climate change impacts on the indigenous population by systematically collecting, processing, and interpreting data as a scoping literature review for effective and inclusive climate policymaking. Twenty-Nine articles of varied study designs were identified employing a systematically organized search strategy using PubMed (Field, MeSH, and advanced search) and Google scholar; relevant data were extracted for further analysis. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines were followed. Changing climate scenarios had both direct and indirect health-related impacts on indigenous health, and altered the epidemiological triad for various health-related events, causing the emergence and re-emergence of infectious diseases, and increased prevalence of chronic diseases and mental disorders. An expanded framework was developed showcasing the variability of climate change events, multiple disadvantages, and its impacts on indigenous populations. Few studies also reported a wide range of adaptation responses of indigenous peoples towards climate change. It was substantiated that any climate-change mitigation policy must take into account the trials and tribulations of indigenous communities. Also, due to the complexity and large variability of the impacts and differences in mitigation capabilities, policies should be contextualized locally and tailored to meet the climate need of the indigenous community.

Keywords: Climate change; Health; Indigenous community; Multiple disadvantage model; Policy.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

We declare no other competing interests. All authors certify that they have no affiliations with or involvement in any organization or entity with any financial interest or non-financial interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in this manuscript.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA-ScR) flow diagram for study inclusion
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Choropleth Map showing the geographical distribution of the indigenous population within the articles included in the review
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Number of included studies by years of publication (n = 29)
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Expanded Conceptual framework of climate change impacts on indigenous health
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. ACIA 2005: Impacts of a Warming Arctic—European Environment Agency. (2022). [Rationale Reference]. https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/indicators/snow-cover-1/acia-200....
    1. Amstislavski P, Zubov L, Chen H, Ceccato P, Pekel J-F, Weedon J. Effects of increase in temperature and open water on transmigration and access to health care by the Nenets reindeer herders in northern Russia. International Journal of Circumpolar Health. 2013;72(1):21183. doi: 10.3402/ijch.v72i0.21183. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bryson JM, Patterson K, Berrang-Ford L, Lwasa S, Namanya DB, Twesigomwe S, Kesande C, Ford JD, Indigenous Health Adaptation to Climate Change Research Team. Harper SL. Seasonality, climate change, and food security during pregnancy among indigenous and non-indigenous women in rural Uganda: Implications for maternal-infant health. PloS One. 2021;16(3):e0247198. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0247198. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Callaghan TV, Kulikova O, Rakhmanova L, Topp-Jørgensen E, Labba N, Kuhmanen L-A, Kirpotin S, Shaduyko O, Burgess H, Rautio A, Hindshaw RS, Golubyatnikov LL, Marshall GJ, Lobanov A, Soromotin A, Sokolov A, Sokolova N, Filant P, Johansson M. Improving dialogue among researchers, local and indigenous peoples and decision-makers to address issues of climate change in the North. Ambio. 2020;49(6):1161–1178. doi: 10.1007/s13280-019-01277-9. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Casadevall A, Pirofski L. Host-pathogen interactions: Basic concepts of microbial commensalism, colonization, infection, and disease. Infection and Immunity. 2000;68(12):6511–6518. doi: 10.1128/IAI.68.12.6511-6518.2000. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources

  NODES
chat 6
COMMUNITY 3
INTERN 1
twitter 2