Extreme heat and humidity and other climate-related events have an alarming impact on mental health outcomes in terms of depression and anxiety in Bangladesh, the world’s seventh most vulnerable country to climate change.
Extreme heat and humidity and other climate-related events have an alarming impact on mental health outcomes in terms of depression and anxiety in Bangladesh, the world’s seventh most vulnerable country to climate change. A study examining this relationship by scientists at Georgetown University and colleagues at George Washington University and the World Bank in Bangladesh, appeared February 5, 2023, in The Lancet Planetary Health.
“We have now established a high-water mark that, alas, could soon be eclipsed for how climate can impact mental health in a highly vulnerable country. This should serve as a warning for other nations,” says the study’s lead author, Syed Shabab Wahid, DrPH, MPH, an assistant professor in the Department of Global Health at Georgetown University’s School of Health. “Previous global research has found a link between these climate-related phenomena and adverse mental health outcomes in terms of depression and anxiety. As climate change worsens, temperatures and humidity will continue to increase, as will natural disasters, such as extreme flooding, which portends worsening impact on our collective mental health, globally.”
The researchers measured climate-related variables at 43 weather stations in Bangladesh for changes in seasonal temperatures and humidity over a two-month period and noted instances of exposure to flooding from study respondents. They say this was not long enough to see major climate change impacts, which could take many years to study, but gives an indication of how even small changes in weather events linked to climate change can impact mental health outcomes.
Read more at Georgetown University
Image: A woman navigates flooding in the Haor region of Bangladesh. Flash flooding inundates this area in the northeast of the country for an average of six months every year, and is expected to become more extreme because of climate change and other factors. (Photo Credit: Balaram Mahalder via Georgetown University)
