Climate Change and Health Preparedness in Africa: Analysing Trends in Six African Countries
Abstract
:1. Introduction
Health Impacts of Climate Change in Africa
2. Methodology
2.1. Data and Sample
2.1.1. Secondary Data
2.1.2. Primary Data Collection
3. Results
3.1. Respondents Background Information
3.2. Respondents Knowledge and Perception of Climate Change and Health Impacts
- Infectious diseases related to changes in vector biology, water, and food contamination.
- Injuries and fatalities related to extreme weather events and heatwaves.
- Allergic symptoms related to increased allergen production.
- Mental health consequences, civil conflicts, and population dislocation.
3.3. Public Health’ Vulnerability to Climate Change Impacts as Perceived by Respondents in Sampled Countries
3.4. The Health Systems’ Preparedness in Dealing with the Health Impacts of Climate Change as Perceived by Respondents
3.5. Available Interventions in Sampled Countries as Perceived by Respondents in Dealing with Health Problems of Climate Change Impacts
3.6. Resources Availability in the Sampled African Countries and Those Needed to Deal with Climate Change Impacts as Perceived by Respondents
4. Discussion
4.1. Vulnerability to Climate Change Impacts on Human Health and the Health Systems’ Perception
4.2. Health System’s Preparedness
4.3. Available Interventions
4.4. Effectiveness of the Available Resources
4.5. Policy Application
- Improve policy frameworks to better consider the many health problems associated with climate change.
- Improve training provisions to raise awareness among professionals in the health sector about the connections between climate change and health.
- Improve frameworks for information exchange and the dissemination of best practice across Africa so that successful initiatives dealing with the nexus of climate change and health may be replicated.
Advantage and Limitations of the Methodology
5. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
Appendix A
Climate Impacts | Most Frequent | More Frequent | Frequent | Less Frequent | Least Frequent |
Floods | |||||
Drought | |||||
Wildfires | |||||
Extreme temperature | |||||
Sea level rise | |||||
Change in Precipitation | |||||
Increase carbon dioxide | |||||
Other |
Most Prevalent | More prevalent | Prevalent | Less Prevalent | Least Prevalent | |
Malaria and other vector-borne diseases | |||||
Diarrhoea, water-borne diseases, and sanitation | |||||
Malnutrition, food-borne and food insecurity | |||||
Climate-induced mental health consequences | |||||
Extreme weather events |
Intervention programs | Yes, and Effective | Yes, but not Effective | No, they do not Exist |
Water availability, sanitation, and water-borne diseases control | |||
Vector control | |||
Nutrition, food safety and distribution during a famine | |||
Extreme events adaptation |
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Impacts | Author (Year) | Study Period (Year) | City/Country | Study Population | Study Design/Statistical Model | Exposure | Outcome |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Water, sanitation, and water-borne diseases | [32] | 2012 | Jamestown/Agbogbloshie (Ghana) | 401 Households | Cross-sectional Descriptive, bivariate, and Multivariate | Floods | Reported cases of diarrheal diseases. A strong correlation between flooding and diarrheal disease. |
[30] | 1990–2011 | North-West (Nigeria) | Morbidity and mortality dataset on cholera cases | Ecological. Stepwise multiple regression, G.A.M. | Min/Max temp, annual Temp and RH | A significant correlation between cholera and annual min/max temperature and rainfall with 1716 deaths from 41,784 cases in 2010 in 18 states. | |
[33] | 2012–2014 | Cape Town (South Africa) | Surveillance database on 58,617 children under five years. | Poisson regression | Min and Max temp | A 32% to 40% increase in diarrhoea incidence at 5 oC increase in Min and Max Temp. | |
[34] | 2013–2015 | Amhara region (Ethiopia) | Retrospective data on children under five years | Ecological Negative Binomial | Average monthly Temp and rainfall | A monthly incidence rate of childhood diarrhoea at 11.4 per 1000 (95% Cl) was significantly associated with mean average temperature and rainfall. | |
[72] | 1991–1993 | Hospital-Based (Malindi). (Kenya). | 862 children under five years old | Case-control Binary logistic regression | Rainfall and Temperature | A strong positive correlation between rainfall, temperature, and childhood bloody diarrhoea. | |
Vector-borne diseases. | [38] | 1995–2006 | National (Ghana) | Reported cases of malaria ranging from 5054 to 347,000 per 100,000 | Ecological GLLMM and Local Moran’s I | Rainfall, temperature, and humidity | A statistically significant correlation between temperature, humidity, and malaria incidence with a less significant association with rainfall as it only predicted malaria prevalence. |
[39] | 1998–2008 | Ondo state (Nigeria) | Data on weather variability; cases of malaria in 18 government hospitals | Ecological Poisson multiple regression | Air and sea surface temp. | The occurrence of monthly malaria of 53.4% and 29% at 1 oC increase in air and sea surface temp. | |
[40] | 1998–2017 | Mutale (Limpopo province) (South Africa) | Malaria and climate data | Ecological Spearman correlation SARIMA | Temp. Rainfall RH | A positive significant association malaria incidence and total monthly rainfall, min and max temp., average temp., and mean relative humidity. | |
[73] | 1989–2009 | Amhara, SNNPR, Tigray, Oromia (Ethiopia) | Data on cases of visceral leishmaniasis cases and meteorological data | Ecological Binary and multivariate regression | Annual average Temp. and rainfall | 94.7% of Vl cases occurred between 20–37 °C of annual average Temp, with fewer cases with increasing rainfall. | |
[74] | 2004–2014 | Baringo county. (Kenya) | Malaria data from 10 health facilities; meteorological data | Ecological Negative binomial regression | Rainfall and Temp. | Rainfall increased malaria transmission across four zones at a time lag of 2 months while temp. increased cases of malaria in riverine and highland zones at time lad of 0 and one month. | |
Extreme weather events | [59] | Secondi-Takoradi (Ghana) | 207 heads of households | Mixed cross-sectional Descriptive analysis | Floods | Report of psychological, environmental, and economic problems; disease outbreaks (malaria, cholera, and dysentery). | |
(Eludoyin et al., 2013 [65] | 1951–2009; 2003–2012 | National Akure (Nigeria) | Secondary data Data on the incidence of heat rash. | Ecological Descriptive and correlation analysis | Extreme temperature | Population experience of thermal stress since year 2000 and a significant heat rash among the population between September and December from 2003 to 2012. | |
[55] | 2011–2012 | Ohangwena, Oshana, Omusata (Namibia) | 282 households | Cross-sectional | Floods | A remarkable but unspecified number of deaths, injuries, illness from resulting floods. | |
[66] | 2006–2010 | Cape Town, Durban, J’berg (South Africa) | Ambient temperature-all-cause mortality | Case-cross over epidemiological design G.A.M. | Ambient Temp. | Increased temperature above the city-specific threshold significantly increased the general population risk of death (number not specified). | |
[75] | 2009–2014 | National survey (Ethiopia) | 55,219 children under five years old | Meta-analysis Bayesian Poisson | Drought | Minimal food-insecure areas showed elevated U5DR compared to stressed food-insecure areas as death rate increases as the prevalence of acute malnutrition increases. | |
Nutrition, food security and distribution | [46] | 2016 | Bongo District (Ghana) | 246 Mother–child pairs (children under 5 years) | Mixed-method cross-sectional Descriptive statistics | Drought | Malnutrition and food insecurity resulted from drought impact, 97.2% being food insecure; children stunting (42.3%), underweight (24.4%) and wasting (17.5%). |
[50] | 2015 | National data (Nigeria) | Food and crop production index, population density, annual average temp, and rainfall. | Ecological Bivariate correlation and multiple regression | Floods, drought, land use and cover change. | Country’s food deficit due to low agricultural production; hence the country’s dependence on food import. Malnutrition resulting from food insecurity. | |
[76] | 2013–2014 | Dubana and Kwathehle (South Africa) | Children between 24 and 59 months and their caregivers | Cross-sectional Spearman correlation | Summer and winter season | Hunger due to food insecurity was reported in the summer rather than in the winter though their difference in food consumption score was not statistically significant. | |
[54] | 2014 | All regions (Ethiopia) | National F.A.O. dataset | Ecological study | Drought | A frequent drought increased population food insecurity from 10% to 15%. | |
[43] | 2009–2013 | Marsabit district (Kenya) | Children under five years old; 924 households | Panel study Descriptive z-score | Drought | Approximately 20% of the children under study were malnourished. | |
Mental health and wellbeing | [60] | 2015 | Kwaebibrim (History of a flood), West Akyem (no history of a flood) (Ghana) | 400 respondents; 200 from each district | Retrospective cohort study Descriptive | Floods | Flood victims more likely to experience symptoms of mental health problems than the non-victims. Reports of significantly higher levels of obsessive compulsion, depression, anxiety, and other global severity indexes. |
[61] | 2012 | Urban areas affected by floods. (Nigeria) | 100 victims of flood-induced crime | Cross-sectional Descriptive analysis | Flooding | Flood-induced crime harms human health and wellbeing with possible effects of anxiety, depression, social dysfunction, and loss of confidence. | |
[21] | 2018 | National (South Africa) | Whole population | Systematic review | Extreme weather events | Population affected by multiple health and social stressors. |
Country | Number of Respondents | % of the Total |
---|---|---|
Ghana | 31 | 25.4% |
Nigeria | 31 | 25.4% |
South Africa | 18 | 14.8% |
Namibia | 11 | 9.0% |
Ethiopia | 19 | 15.6% |
Kenya | 12 | 9.8% |
Total | 122 | 100% |
Country | Government Agencies | Higher Institutions | Non-Governmental Agencies | Research Institutions | Total within the Country |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ethiopia | 21.0% | 47.4% | 31.6% | 0.0% | 100.0% |
Ghana | 46.6% | 26.7% | 6.7% | 20.0% | 100.0% |
Kenya | 27.2% | 36.4% | 0.0% | 36.4% | 100.0% |
Namibia | 45.4% | 27.3% | 27.3% | 0.0% | 100.0% |
Nigeria | 21.2% | 45.5% | 21.2% | 12.1% | 100.0% |
South Africa | 22.2% | 44.4% | 5.6% | 27.8% | 100.0% |
% of the total | 30.3% | 38.5% | 15.6% | 15.6% | 100.0% |
Country | Yes, a Lot | Yes, Some | Yes, Little | Total within the Country |
---|---|---|---|---|
Ghana | 19.4% | 61.3% | 19.3% | 100% |
Nigeria | 42.0% | 54.8% | 3.2% | 100% |
South Africa | 22.2% | 44.5% | 33.3% | 100% |
Namibia | 0.0 | 72.7% | 27.3% | 100% |
Ethiopia | 52.6% | 42.1% | 5.3% | 100% |
Kenya | 16.7% | 75.0% | 8.3% | 100% |
% of Total | 28.7% | 56.6% | 14.7% | 100% |
Country | Increased | No Changes | Decreased | I Do Not Know | Total within the Country |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ghana | 71.0% | 16.1% | 9.7% | 3.2% | 100% |
Nigeria | 80.6% | 19.4% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100% |
South Africa | 66.7% | 16.7% | 5.5% | 11.1% | 100% |
Namibia | 81.8% | 9.1% | 9.1% | 0.0% | 100% |
Ethiopia | 68.5% | 10.5% | 10.5% | 10.5% | 100% |
Kenya | 75.0% | 0% | 16.7% | 8.3% | 100% |
% of Total | 73.8% | 13.9% | 7.4% | 4.9% | 100% |
Country | 1. Preparedness a Priority in the Country 2. Experts to Deal with Climate Impacts (CI) 3. Healthcare Delivery Systems to Address CI. 4. Addressing Mental Illness Caused by Extreme Events. 5. Enough Training of Health Professionals 6. Enough Healthcare Personnel | Yes, but a Little | No, Not at All |
---|---|---|---|
7. Preparedness to Respond to Extreme Events | Fairly Well Prepared | Not so Much Prepared | |
Ghana | 1. | 58.1% | 22.6% |
2. | 61.3% | 22.6% | |
3. | 77.4% | 6.5% | |
4. | 83.9% | 12.9% | |
5. | 67.7% | 16.1% | |
6. | 83.9% | 12.9% | |
7. | 45.2% | 48.4% | |
Nigeria | 1. | 58.1% | 25.8% |
2. | 51.6% | 22.6% | |
3. | 64.5% | 29.0% | |
4. | 67.7% | 19.4% | |
5. | 67.7% | 22.6% | |
6. | 61.3% | 25.8% | |
7. | 25.8% | 71.0% | |
South Africa | 1. | 33.3% | 16.7% |
2. | 66.7% | 5.6% | |
3. | 55.6% | 27.8% | |
4. | 50.0% | 27.8% | |
5. | 72.2% | 16.7% | |
6. | 55.6% | 16.7% | |
7. | 44.4% | 44.4% | |
Namibia | 1. | 45.5% | 27.3% |
2. | 45.5% | 27.3% | |
3. | 54.5% | 9.1% | |
4. | 63.6% | 27.3% | |
5. | 36.4% | 45.5% | |
6. | 45.5% | 45.5% | |
7. | 19.2% | 72.7% | |
Ethiopia | 1. | 57.9% | 10.5% |
2. | 78.9% | 0.0% | |
3. | 94.7% | 0.0% | |
4. | 73.7% | 21.1% | |
5. | 52.6% | 42.1% | |
6. | 52.6% | 36.8% | |
7. | 47.4% | 47.4% | |
Kenya | 1. | 41.7% | 41.7% |
2. | 66.7% | 16.7% | |
3. | 75.0% | 8.3% | |
4. | 66.7% | 25.0% | |
5. | 50.0% | 33.3% | |
6. | 50.0% | 25.0% | |
7. | 50.0% | 47.1% |
Country | Control of Climate Impacts 1. Water-Borne Diseases Control 2. Vector-Borne Diseases and Vector Control 3. Nutrition, Food Security and Distribution Organisations 4. Extreme Events Adaptation | Available, but Not Effective | Not Available |
---|---|---|---|
Ghana | 1. 2. 3. 4. | 77.4% 54.8% 74.2% 58.1% | 3.2% 9.7% 9.7% 22.6% |
Nigeria | 1. 2. 3. 4. | 45.2% 48.4% 64.5% 54.8% | 16.1% 16.1% 12.9% 22.6% |
South Africa | 1. 2. 3. 4. | 66.7% 27.8% 55.6% 38.9 | 0.0% 27.8% 0.0% 27.8% |
Namibia | 1. 2. 3. 4. | 63.6% 18.2% 54.5% 81.8% | 0.00% 9.1% 9.1% 0.0% |
Ethiopia | 1. 2. 3. 4. | 52.6% 36.8% 36.8% 52.6% | 00% 10.5% 10.5% 5.3% |
Kenya | 1. 2. 3. 4. | 58.3% 50.0% 50.0% 50.0% | 16.7% 8.3% 25.0% 25.0% |
Country | Percentages of ‘Not Enough’ as Reported by Respondents |
---|---|
Ghana | 77.4% |
Nigeria | 64.5% |
South Africa | 50.0% |
Namibia | 81.8% |
Ethiopia | 78.9% |
Kenya | 58.3% |
Country | 1. Climate Change Incorporated into Public Health Interventions | Yes, but a Little | No, Not at All |
---|---|---|---|
2. Technical Support from the Government | |||
3. Budget/Funding Needed | Perceived Percentage Funding/Budget Needed | ||
Ghana | 83.9% | 12.9% | |
1. | 77.4% | 16.1% | |
2. | 90.3% | ||
Nigeria | 1. | 41.9% | 32.3% |
2. | 64.5% | 22.6% | |
3. | 96.8% | ||
South Africa | 1. | 38.9% | 22.2% |
2. | 22.2% | 44.4% | |
3. | 77.8% | ||
Namibia | 1. | 54.5% | 27.3% |
2. | 27.3% | 27.3% | |
3. | 90.9% | ||
Ethiopia | 1. | 63.2% | 21.1% |
2. | 47.4% | 42.1% | |
3. | 89.5% | ||
Kenya | 1. | 58.3% | 25.0% |
2. | 50.0% | 25.0% | |
3. | 91.7% |
Country | 1. Available Resources to Deal with Health Impact of CC | Limited Availability (%) |
---|---|---|
2. Expand and Construct More Hospital and Health Centres. 3. Additional Staffs Needed. 4. Staff Training 5. Medical Equipment Needed. 6. Good Surveillance System 7. Emergency Response Unit/Resources Needed | Needed Resources Perceived (% within a Country) | |
Ghana | 1. | 61.9% |
2. | 83.9% | |
3. | 74.2% | |
4. | 83.9% | |
5. | 83.9% | |
6. | 77.4% | |
7. | 90.3% | |
Nigeria | 1. | 61.3% |
2. | 80.6% | |
3. | 77.4% | |
4. | 90.3% | |
5. | 90.3% | |
6. | 87.1% | |
7. | 93.5% | |
South Africa | 1. | 66.7% |
2. | 61.1% | |
3. | 55.6% | |
4. | 94.4% | |
5. | 55.5% | |
6. | 44.4% | |
7. | 66.7% | |
Namibia | 1. | 90.9% |
2. | 66.6% | |
3. | 72.7% | |
4. | 81.8% | |
5. | 81.8% | |
6. | 72.7% | |
7. | 63.6% | |
Ethiopia | 1. | 68.4% |
2. | 78.9% | |
3. | 89.5% | |
4. | 94.7% | |
5. | 84.2% | |
6. | 78.9% | |
7. | 84.4% | |
Kenya | 1. | 75.0% |
2. | 75.0% | |
3. | 66.7% | |
4. | 91.7% | |
5. | 75.0% | |
6. | 75.0% | |
7. | 66.7% |
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Opoku, S.K.; Filho, W.L.; Hubert, F.; Adejumo, O. Climate Change and Health Preparedness in Africa: Analysing Trends in Six African Countries. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18, 4672. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18094672
Opoku SK, Filho WL, Hubert F, Adejumo O. Climate Change and Health Preparedness in Africa: Analysing Trends in Six African Countries. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2021; 18(9):4672. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18094672
Chicago/Turabian StyleOpoku, Samuel Kwasi, Walter Leal Filho, Fudjumdjum Hubert, and Oluwabunmi Adejumo. 2021. "Climate Change and Health Preparedness in Africa: Analysing Trends in Six African Countries" International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 18, no. 9: 4672. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18094672