Impact of climate change on community health and resilience in Ethiopia: A review article

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Ardalan, Ali^a | Belay, Gosaye Degu^{a; b; *} | Assen, Mohammed^c | Hosseinzadeh-Attar, Mohammad Javad^d | Khoei, Effat Merghati^e | Ostadtaghizadeh, Abbas^a

Affiliations: [a] Department of Health in Emergencies and Disasters, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran | [b] Department of Disaster and Emergency Health, School of Public Health, International Campus, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran | [c] Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | [d] Department of Clinical Nutrition, School of Nutritional Sciences and Dietetics, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran | [e] The National Center for Addiction Studies (INCAS); Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS); Family and Sexual Health Division, Brian and Spinal Injury Research Center (BASIR), Neuroscience Institution, TUMS, Tehran, Iran

Correspondence: [*] Corresponding author: Gosaye Degu Belay, Department of Disaster and Emergency Health, School of Public Health, %****␣hab-27-hab190364_temp.tex␣Line␣25␣**** International Campus, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. E-mail: [email protected].

Abstract: BACKGROUND: Drought is a serious issue which might be caused by climate change that could create famine and health problems. Drought reduces air quality, increases fungal infestation, reduces people hand washing, affects mental health, leads to malnutrition by decreasing agricultural production, and increases diseases transmitted by insects. This study aimed to determine and describe community health status through building drought resilience in Ethiopia. METHODS: This review was conducted based on the available peer-reviewed articles that were published from January 2004 to December 2018 Online databases from PubMed, MEDLINE, Scopus, EMBASE and Google Scholar were searched for studies related to the building drought and community health resilience at different regions of Ethiopia that were published in English language. The search was made by using “Emergency disaster”, “prevention”, “preparedness”, “response”, “recovery”, “drought”, “food insecurity”, “coping strategies” and “drought health policy” as keywords. RESULTS: Most of the reviewed articles deal with the impact of climate change on the human health in relation to food security. The associated factors of the impact of drought on food security is basically due to lack of irrigation and farmland, the scarcity of water due to the direct effect of drought, flood, severe soil erosion, livestock dispossession, family size of the household and literacy of the households. Various coping strategies were employed by the households to alleviate the high and continued food insecurity problem such as reducing the number and amount of meal, scrounging cash and grain, searching for off-farm and non-farm jobs, getting food aid, vending of livestock, and partake in food for work programs. CONCLUSION: The findings explored components of the coping strategies to the building resilience create fruitful health conditions for the food insecure household. The effect of agricultural support services as reliance’s on drought and community health situation was regarded as a positive outcome. Moreover, the means to get adequate food security strategies in all regions of Ethiopia should be designed. Furthermore, future researches are recommended for finding the best building strategies for each region of Ethiopia.

Keywords: Community, drought, Ethiopia, health, resilience

DOI: 10.3233/HAB-190364

Journal: Human Antibodies, vol. 27, no. S1, pp. 11-22, 2019