Global warming, migration, and neurological practice
Citation: Amiri M, Peinkhofer C, Othman MH, et al. Global warming and neurological practice: systematic review. The Journal of Life and Environmental Sciences. 2021;9:e11941.
Language: Abstract and full text available in EN.
Free to view: Yes.
Funding sources: Lundbeck Foundation (Denmark).
What is this? In this systematic review, the authors searched for studies about the influence of ambient temperature and human migration on Alzheimer’s and Non-Alzheimer’s dementia, epilepsy, headache and migraine, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, stroke, and tick-borne encephalitis. They restricted their searches to articles published in or translated into English from January 2000 to December 2020. They found 93 studies. This systematic review was registered with PROSPERO, number CRD42020147543.
What was found: Increased temperature was associated with a higher mortality and/or morbidity of neurological disorders such as stroke, multiple sclerosis, and epilepsy. Additionally, vector-borne diseases were more likely to spread to non-endemic areas due to increased temperature and humidity. Results on the impact of migration were ambiguous. Unemployment, low socioeconomic status, poor housing conditions, social isolation, and discrimination may indirectly influence disease outcome. No study addressed how global warming and human migration will change neurological practice.
Implications: The authors suggested that climate change will alter neurological practice in the coming years, even though studies were inconsistent and poorly designed, with limited data from low-income countries. They stated that there was an urgent need for further research in this area.
Other considerations: The authors of the review discussed their findings in the context of socioeconomic status and age.
This summary was prepared by Adeola Ajayi, checked by Grace Meng, and finalized by William Summerskill.