Perceptions of climate change impacts and self-rated health in coastal Cambodia

Abstract

Climate change contributes to the global burden of diseases and premature mortality. This burden may be even more pronounced in coastal areas amongst the poor and the marginalised groups. Using a survey data-set from 1823 households in coastal communities in Cambodia, we examine how perceptions on climate change impacts influence self-rated health (SRH) when controlling for livelihoods, food security and contextual and compositional factors. The findings show that individuals who had higher factor scores on perceived socio-ecological impact of climate change were less likely to report good SRH. Likewise, those who reported barriers to protect themselves against the impacts of climate change were less likely to report good health. Surprisingly, households that reported earning more were less likely to report good health.

Keywords:

• Climate change perceptions
• health
• coastal Cambodia

Acknowledgements

We are grateful for research funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada on the project entitled ‘the Indian Ocean World Centre: The Making of the First Global Economy’. We also wish to express our sincere thanks to Dr. Frederick A. Armah of the University of Cape Coast, Ghana for reading through the original manuscript, and to the anonymous reviewers and the Editor.