Climate change is affecting and will increasingly influence human health and wellbeing. Children are particularly vulnerable to the impact of climate change. An extensive literature review regarding the impact of climate change on children’s health was conducted in April 2012 by searching electronic databases PubMed, Scopus, ProQuest, ScienceDirect, and Web of Science, as well as relevant websites, such as IPCC and WHO. Climate change affects children’s health through increased air pollution, more weather-related disasters, more frequent and intense heat waves, decreased water quality and quantity, food shortage and greater exposure to toxicants. As a result, children experience greater risk of mental disorders, malnutrition, infectious diseases, allergic diseases and respiratory diseases. Mitigation measures like reducing carbon pollution emissions, and adaptation measures such as early warning systems and post-disaster counseling are strongly needed. Future health research directions should focus on: (1) identifying whether climate change impacts on children will be modified by gender, age and socioeconomic status; (2) refining outcome measures of children’s vulnerability to climate change; (3) projecting children’s disease burden under climate change scenarios; (4) exploring children’s disease burden related to climate change in low-income countries; and (5) identifying the most cost-effective mitigation and adaptation actions from a children’s health perspective.
展开▼
机译：气候变化正在影响并将日益影响人类健康。儿童特别容易受到气候变化的影响。 2012年4月，通过搜索电子数据库PubMed，Scopus，ProQuest，ScienceDirect和Web of Science以及相关网站（如IPCC和WHO），对气候变化对儿童健康的影响进行了广泛的文献综述。气候变化通过增加空气污染，更多与天气有关的灾难，更频繁和更强烈的热浪，水质和水量下降，食物短缺以及更多地接触有毒物质，影响儿童的健康。结果，儿童患精神障碍，营养不良，传染病，过敏性疾病和呼吸道疾病的风险更大。迫切需要缓解措施，例如减少碳污染排放，以及适应措施，例如预警系统和灾后咨询。未来的健康研究方向应集中在：（1）确定气候变化对儿童的影响是否会因性别，年龄和社会经济地位而改变; （2）完善关于儿童易受气候变化影响的成果指标; （3）预测气候变化情景下儿童的疾病负担; （4）探索低收入国家与气候变化相关的儿童疾病负担; （5）从儿童健康的角度确定最具成本效益的缓解和适应措施。
展开▼
