Impact of climate change on diarrheal diseases: A scoping review

Climate change, characterized by long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns including extreme weather events, primarily caused by the combustion of fossil fuels, has increasingly been linked to adverse health outcomes caused by infectious diseases. In this manuscript we review available data from the last 10 years assessing the influence of climate change and its proximate causes on enteric (diarrheal) diseases worldwide.

A scoping review following PRISMA guidelines was conducted using search strategies encompassing climate change, extreme weather events exacerbated by climate change, proximate causes of climate change, and the relationship of these factors to incidence and outcomes of enteric diseases. The review included articles published in English that utilized clinical data. Overarching themes were extracted from these studies.

The review identified 122 manuscripts with common themes including the effects of climatic variables such as temperature, precipitation, and extreme weather events on diarrheal disease incidence, the interplay between these factors and social determinants of health such as access to Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) services, and expected exacerbations with long-term climatic trends.

Climate change-associated increases in temperatures and extreme weather events was generally associated with increased incidence of diarrheal diseases in most locations studied. There was a particularly strong intersection of these effects with social determinants of health and WASH. These data will be useful for setting research agendas, planning appropriate adaptation measures, and for reinforcing the urgent need for climate change mitigation globally.