Climate change and Cardiovascular Diseases: State and Exploratory Analyses of patient data in Limpopo
Key takeaways
We identified some discrepancies occurring at the facility level, individuals and the weather trends across the province that may be associated with the prevalence of CVDs in the region. For example, warm and specific cold apparent temperatures (12-24°C) have the potential to increase CVD admissions cumulated over 21 days, with cold temperatures being responsible for the most considerable fraction of CVD admissions. The study suggests further research to strengthen these first findings - identify vulnerable groups, and improve public health through evidence-based mitigation strategies.
We identified some discrepancies occurring at the facility level, individuals and the weather trends across the province that may be associated with the prevalence of CVDs in the region. For example, warm and specific cold apparent temperatures (12-24°C) have the potential to increase CVD admissions cumulated over 21 days, with cold temperatures being responsible for the most considerable fraction of CVD admissions. The study suggests further research to strengthen these first findings - identify vulnerable groups, and improve public health through evidence-based mitigation strategies.
The rise in temperature trends globally, due to climate change has been associated with increased mortality and is recognized as a risk factor for chronic illnesses such as cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). In South Africa, warming is happening at twice the global rate, calling for climate action to mitigate its impact, especially on health. The nationwide effects of temperature on CVD mortality have been studied. However, the effect of temperature on CVD morbidity in remote areas such as Limpopo has not yet been investigated. Limpopo harbours the highest levels of poverty in the country. With a population of 5.4 million inhabitants, 72.4% live in poverty. Moreover, only 4.2% of the households have air conditioning. Considering Limpopo is one of the hottest areas in South Africa, this makes the risk of CVD very prevalent in the province and could exacerbate the CVD burden, which is very significant for public health.
The project was financed by the Leading House Africa at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH) / the University of Basel. The project is in the frame of a scientific partnership collaboration between the research group on “Ecosystem services, climate and health” of the Ecosystem Health Sciences Unit within the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at Swiss TPH, and the Environment and Health Unit of the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) and the University of Johannesburg in South Africa.
Through the Seed Funding Research Grant on SDGs in Limpopo by Leading House Africa, research organization; Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, the University of Pretoria, and the South Africa Medical Research Council, among other partners, formed a collaborative environment to realize the findings of this study through a duration period of one year. Furthermore, networking among the operational teams and organizations through sharing ideas geared towards achieving a similar goal was made possible by Leading House through the leverage of critical resources, creating new opportunities and ideas that could aid in research on climate change and CVD to sustainable heights.
An ecological study utilized health admission records from 2002-to-2016 in two public district hospitals – Nkhensani hospital and Maputha L. Malatjie Hospital, our study population, as individuals living in Limpopo province who had access to the two health facilities. We managed to work with a team in Switzerland, composed of a PhD student (Shreya Shrikhande) and a Master’s degree student (Jacqueline Buehler) from Switzerland, and a strong team in South Africa, starting with data collectors and scientists who assisted with digitizing the hospital admission records from 2002-to 2016. Moreover, we obtained daily mean ambient temperature (Tavrg), wind speed (WS) and relative humidity (RH) from the Thohoyandou weather station from 1. January 2002 until 31. December 2016 measured in degrees Celsius (°C), m/s and g/m3, respectively. In addition, we identified some discrepancies occurring at the facility level, individuals and the weather trends across the province that may be associated with the prevalence of CVDs in the region. For example, warm and specific cold apparent temperatures (12-24°C) have the potential to increase CVD admissions cumulated over 21 days, with cold temperatures being responsible for the most considerable fraction of CVD admissions. The study suggests further research to strengthen these first findings – identify vulnerable groups, and improve public health through evidence-based mitigation strategies.
This grant gave an opportunity of enrolling two Master’s students, one who completed her Master’s thesis in June 2021 on CVDs (Jacqueline Biehler) and another one who pursued respiratory illnesses (Daniel Kipo) for completion in 2022, mentored by a PhD student (Shreya Schrikhende). Working together as a joint team from Switzerland and South Africa with regular meetings online kept progress on track. The collegiality between team members was very helpful and led to closer working relationships. This meant learning and sharing of skills were at their optimal. It was a very productive experience that built the capacities of younger researchers and opened doors for further collaboration between Switzerland and South Africa in the future.
