Prevention & lipidsMeta-analysis
Climate Change and Cardiovascular Health
- Systematic review
- qualitative synthesis
- Navigation Guide quality assessment
- 20 798 articles screened, 2564 selected for full-text review
Authors' conclusion
Several environmental stressors that are predicted to increase in frequency and intensity with climate change are associated with increased cardiovascular risk, but data on outcomes in low-income countries are lacking.
Study context
- Population
- Observational studies of climate change-related environmental stressors and CV outcomes, 1970–2023
- Participants
- 182 / 210 / 45 / 63
- Comparison
- Extreme temperature vs Ground-level ozone vs Wildfire smoke vs Extreme weather events
- Extreme temperaturen = 182
- Ground-level ozonen = 210
- Wildfire smoken = 45
- Extreme weather eventsn = 63
- Outcome
- CV mortality, acute CV events and related health care utilization
Pooled result
As reported in the abstract
- Strength of evidence sufficient for extreme temperature; ground-level ozone; tropical storms, hurricanes, and cyclones; and dust storms
- Evidence limited for wildfire smoke and inadequate for drought and mudslides
- Extreme temperature associated with increased CV mortality and morbidity; magnitude varied with temperature and duration of exposure
- Ground-level ozone amplified the risk associated with higher temperatures and vice versa
- Extreme weather events, such as hurricanes, associated with increased CV risk persisting for many months
- Wildfire smoke: some studies noted a small increase in CV mortality, OHCA and ischemic heart disease hospitalizations; others found no association
Further pooled results
Vulnerable populations
- Older adults, racial and ethnic minoritized populations, and lower-wealth communities disproportionately affected
Geographic coverage
- High-income countries
- 30
- Middle-income countries
- 17
- Low-income country
- 1
Parts of this Brief are withheld: the automatic checks could not confirm them against the abstract.
Original publication
Climate Change and Cardiovascular Health. JAMA Cardiol. Published 1 August 2024. doi:10.1001/jamacardio.2024.1321
Summarised from the published abstract; every number is checked against it