ABSTRACT
The impact of changing environment and climate can be causally or co-relationally linked to how public health changes in today’s world. These changes occur due to how climate and environmental changes affect the occurrence of multiple disease-causing factors. The proposed chapter shall explore three subtopics of impacts on health as caused by changing environment and climate.
The first subtopic shall focus on the effects of climate and environmental change on the spread of acute diseases and the impact it has on health. This subtopic shall focus on the spread of communicable diseases with a focus on how climate and environmental change affects anthroponoses and zoonoses of diseases and direct and indirect transmission of such diseases. The analysis in this subtopic will focus on how climate and environmental change factors are correlated with the occurrence of pandemics like COVID-19.
The second subtopic shall focus on the effects of environmental change on the occurrence and severity of chronic non-communicable diseases. Climate and environmental changes happen over extended periods of time and the effects are long-term and entrenched. These changes to the ecosystem bring about lifestyle changes or cause adverse physiological changes, like cardiovascular or nephrological changes which may turn into chronic disorders. These adverse effects of environmental alterations require in-depth understanding as they end up incentivising changes to health and financial policies and industrial strategies like health insurance which in turn affect how healthcare decisions are made.
The third subtopic shall focus on the macroeconomic and public policy decisions pertaining to climate and environmental changes that affect consumer behaviour towards healthcare, indirectly bringing about short- and long-term effects to the health of individuals and households. Environmental changes leading to food insecurity, healthcare public expenditure affecting out-of-pocket spending and climate change-related effects on livelihoods leading to poverty are important indicators for assessing how climate and environmental changes impact health and health systems. This subtopic shall provide a macro view of the impacts of changing environment on human health.
The objective of this chapter shall be to establish a holistic map of the multifarious effects of a changing environment on human health and health systems.
