Knowledge Gaps and Research Priorities on the Health Effects of Heatwaves: A Systematic Review of Reviews

Andrea Conti, Martina Valente, Matteo Paganini, Marco Farsoni, Luca Ragazzoni and Francesco Barone-Adesi
Additional contact information
Andrea Conti: CRIMEDIM—Center for Research and Training in Disaster Medicine, Humanitarian Aid and Global Health, Università del Piemonte Orientale, 28100 Novara, Italy
Martina Valente: CRIMEDIM—Center for Research and Training in Disaster Medicine, Humanitarian Aid and Global Health, Università del Piemonte Orientale, 28100 Novara, Italy
Matteo Paganini: CRIMEDIM—Center for Research and Training in Disaster Medicine, Humanitarian Aid and Global Health, Università del Piemonte Orientale, 28100 Novara, Italy
Marco Farsoni: Department of Translational Medicine, Università del Piemonte Orientale, 28100 Novara, Italy
Luca Ragazzoni: CRIMEDIM—Center for Research and Training in Disaster Medicine, Humanitarian Aid and Global Health, Università del Piemonte Orientale, 28100 Novara, Italy
Francesco Barone-Adesi: CRIMEDIM—Center for Research and Training in Disaster Medicine, Humanitarian Aid and Global Health, Università del Piemonte Orientale, 28100 Novara, Italy

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 10, 1-16

Abstract: Although extreme weather events have played a constant role in human history, heatwaves (HWs) have become more frequent and intense in the past decades, causing concern especially in light of the increasing evidence on climate change. Despite the increasing number of reviews suggesting a relationship between heat and health, these reviews focus primarily on mortality, neglecting other important aspects. This systematic review of reviews gathered the available evidence from research syntheses conducted on HWs and health. Following the PRISMA guidelines, 2232 records were retrieved, and 283 reviews were ultimately included. Information was extracted from the papers and categorized by topics. Quantitative data were extracted from meta-analyses and, when not available, evidence was collected from systematic reviews. Overall, 187 reviews were non-systematic, while 96 were systematic, of which 27 performed a meta-analysis. The majority evaluated mortality, morbidity, or vulnerability, while the other topics were scarcely addressed. The following main knowledge gaps were identified: lack of a universally accepted definition of HW; scarce evidence on the HW-mental health relationship; no meta-analyses assessing the risk perception of HWs; scarcity of studies evaluating the efficacy of adaptation strategies and interventions. Future efforts should meet these priorities to provide high-quality evidence to stakeholders.

Keywords: climate change; global warming; extreme weather event; heatwave; public health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/10/5887/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/10/5887/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:10:p:5887-:d:813991

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().