Abstract
The goal of this chapter is to present the principles of Epidemiology to describe and analyse health effects of climate change. Epidemiology is the study of the distribution and determinants of health related states and use of that knowledge to improve population health. Global warming is a key phenomenon that has significant impacts on population health. The objective of this chapter is to provide an outline of key epidemiological approaches used to study health impacts of climate change. The chapter is structured as follows.
We begin with a brief description of the key issues associated with climate change -- greenhouse gas emission induced increase in ambient temperature, increased and abnormal patterns of rainfall and humidity, glacial melting and rise in the sea levels with coastal flooding, and increased frequency of natural disasters - storms and adverse weather events due to possible alterations in the oceanic currents and forces. In this sense, the phenomenon of climate change brings environmental epidemiological research at the crossroads of studying health effects of heat exposure, temperature extremes, natural disasters, emergent infectious diseases, health effects due to migration, and health effects of increased human-animal interactions. With this in perspective, we next provide a brief overview of key principles of epidemiological study designs to describe and identify determinants to study these phenomena (principles of disease surveillance, longitudinal studies, retrospective and prospective cohort studies, case control studies, and case crossover studies). In the third & final section, we describe the challenges and approaches of different epidemiological study designs and approaches for each of these different situations and sketch out a conceptual map of the next steps in using epidemiological studies to address health issues associated with global warming.
Introduction: Global Warming & Anthropocene
Svante Arrhenius and the theory of warming