Public Response to Changing Patterns of Disease Risk

2009 - 2010
Project Status: Completed

Funded by:
Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research

Climate change if expected to lead to changes in prevalence of some diseases. Such disease include various pathogens, but those most strongly lined with climatic change tend to be vector-borne diseases whose hot species may undergo changes in population and distribution as a result of changing ecological conditions.

Analysis of the implication for health security requires not only better understanding of the potential dynamics of disease distribution but also stronger understanding of the potential for adaptation both by the health system agencies and by the population exposed to changing risk. This aspect has received the least systematic research from health science, though it has major implications for human vulnerability and security. It is also critical as a means to inform effective health promotion (which may be the only feasibly widespread responses for low-income countries). This review project collated work on behavioural response to infectious diseases that have potential to undergo step-changes in prevalence associated with climate change.

Partner Organisations:
Tyndall Centre for Climate Change research

DEV Key Contact:

Roger Few

Selected Output:
Few, R., 2012, ‘Health Behaviour Theory, Adaptive Capacity and the Dynamics of Disease Risk’, Climate and Development, 4(4): 301-310