Abstract
In the context of global warming, individuals may, in their lifetimes, experience the gradual increase in average warming and drying conditions, repeated extreme weather events, or small but significant shifts in seasonal precipitation and temperature. Individual- and household-level vulnerability to these conditions increases or decreases in response to a range of interrelated demographic, social, economic, political, and environmental factors. Given the complexity of the exposure factors and the wide range of health and behavioral responses, understanding the processes that link climate change conditions to health and demographic outcomes requires detailed and innovative theory, data, and analytic tools. Combining these theory, data, and tools to advance climate change research represents a new type of integrated scientific approach that engages both physical and social sciences. In this chapter, we describe a range of factors that analysts must consider as they design climate change-health studies. We highlight key datasets and theories and provide examples from recent literature.
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Notes
- 1.
“Linked” can refer to the spatial proximity of a set of villages or it can refer to some other factor that connects villages (e.g., roads and trade partners).
- 2.
Variables commonly used to measure different dimensions of maternal and child health include infant mortality, maternal mortality, birth weight, child malnutrition (as measured by height-for-age, weight-for-age, and weight-for-height), fertility/childbearing (e.g., spacing, timing, fecundity, goals, and total number of live births), and family planning use/intentions.
- 3.
In a context of climate change, recent conditions (e.g., those within the previous 5–10 years) may be notably different from the “long-term mean,” and families and individuals likely have adapted to a new norm requiring attention to more recent conditions rather than long-term trends.
- 4.
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Acknowledgments
We would like to thank Ashwini Shridhar, Divya Pandey, and Maya Luetke for their thoughtful comments on drafts of this chapter. The authors gratefully acknowledge support from the Minnesota Population Center (P2C HD041023) funded through a grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute for Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).
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Dorélien, A., Grace, K. (2023). Climate Change-Related Demographic and Health Research: Data and Approaches. In: Ortiz, S.E., McHale, S.M., King, V., Glick, J.E. (eds) Environmental Impacts on Families. National Symposium on Family Issues, vol 12. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-22649-6_3
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