Climate change is impacting mental health in North America: A systematic scoping review of the hazards, exposures, vulnerabilities, risks and responses

Abstract

As climate change progresses, it is crucial that researchers and policymakers understand the ways in which climate-mental health risks arise through interactions between climate hazards, human exposure and social vulnerabilities across time and location. This scoping review systematically examined the nature, range and extent of published research in North America that investigates climate-mental health interactions. Five electronic databases were searched and two independent reviewers applied pre-determined criteria to assess the eligibility of articles identified in the search. Eighty-nine articles were determined to be relevant and underwent data extraction and analysis. The published literature reported on numerous exposure pathways through which acute and chronic climate hazards interacted with social vulnerabilities to increase mental health risks, including wellbeing, trauma, anxiety, depression, suicide and substance use. This review also highlights important gaps within the North American climate-mental health evidence base, including minimal research conducted in Mexico, as well as a lack of studies investigating climate-mental health adaptation strategies and projected future mental health risks. Further research should support effective preparation for and adaptation to the current and future mental health impacts of climate change. Such strategies could reduce health risks and the long-term mental health impacts that individuals and communities experience in a changing climate.

Keywords:

• Climate change
• mental health
• North America
• scoping review

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Sandra Campbell at the University of Alberta Library for her advice, guidance and direction regarding the original search strategy. We sincerely thank Mauricio Domínguez Aguilar for his work developing the original search protocol. Thank you to Amreen Babujee, Shaugn Coggins, Etienne De Jongh, Maesha Elahi, Nia King, Katharine Neale, Rubab Qureshi and Tianna Rusnak for assisting with the screening of abstracts and articles. Thank you to Marina Banuet Martinez for extracting data from the article published in Spanish.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest with respect to this manuscript. The funding bodies were not involved in the design of the study or the collection, analysis and interpretation of data, or in the writing of the manuscript.

Data availability statement

The datasets generated and analysed during this study are not publicly available but are available upon reasonable request of the corresponding authors. Details are provided in the published protocol: Harper, Cunsolo, Babujee, Coggins, Domínguez Aguilar, et al. (2021).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by funding from Alberta Innovates and Alberta Advanced Education (to B.A.), the Alberta Graduate Excellence Scholarship (to B.A.), and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (to S.L.H. and A.C.).