Developing a research agenda on climate change and health in primary care

Climate Change Perception and Mental Health. Results from a Systematic Review of the Literature

“…All of the included articles were cross-sectional studies conducted during 2012 [26] and 2022 [27]. Concerning the country where the studies took place, the United States of America was the most represented, in three studies [26,28,29] (one of which also included European undergraduate students [26]). Three studies were conducted in Europe (Norway [30], Germany [27], and Italy [31]), two studies were conducted in Australia [32,33], one study was conducted in Canada [34], and lastly, one study was conducted in Bangladesh [35].…”

“…The exposure of interest was generically defined as climate change perception in half of the included studies (n = 5) [27,[32][33][34][35], whereas one study defined climate change perception as referring to environmental attitudes and pro-environmental behaviors [26]. Climate change preoccupation was assessed by two studies [30,31], whereas climate change awareness [29] and the emotional and functional impact on participants of climate change perceptions [28] were assessed by one study each. The majority of the included studies (n = 6) used a validated questionnaires to assess climate change perception/awareness [26][27][28][31][32][33].…”

“…The majority was represented by young adult cohorts including high school, undergraduate, and graduate students. Only one study [34] included healthcare professionals and another primary care patients [29]. In all studies, there was a prevalence of the female sex among the respondents (average 58.66%).…”

“…Several mental health outcomes were considered in the included studies, including depression (or depressive symptoms) [28,30,31,33], anxiety [28,29,[31][32][33], eco-anxiety/ecological worries [26,32], stress [27,[31][32][33], well-being [30,34], adjustment disorder [33], resilience [33], substance use [33], dysphoria [29], worry about the future [32], cognitive emotional impairment [28], cognitive functional impairment [28], feelings of loss [35], and feelings of suicide ideation [35]. In particular, one study assessed the prevalence of worry about the future, eco-anxiety, and stress and anxiety (combined) among those with higher climate change perception and found an occurrence of 93%, 89%, and 83%, respectively [32].…”

Progress in understanding climate change's effects on children and youth

“…Another recent literature review presents the authors’ plan to collate and summarize key mental health findings in children due to climate change; the authors argue that ‘given the dearth of research into the overarching awareness of climate change and child mental health and well-being, [they] are conducting a global scoping review… to map the current state of knowledge in a specific research area’ [14 ▪ ]. In adults, one recent study in the US found a significant, positive correlation between patient-reported climate change concerns and dysphoria [15 ▪ ]. Research is needed in the field of pediatric mental health due to climate change.…”