Heart Disease and Climate Change

Abstract

This Open Access book describes how the aging populations of high-income countries and younger, more vulnerable populations living in low-to-middle income countries are increasingly affected by cardiac events (including hospitalisation and premature mortality) that do not occur randomly. Instead, they rise and fall in response to climatic conditions. This relationship represents a complex bio-behavioral interaction between individuals at risk of experiencing an acute cardiovascular event and their environment. Unfortunately, expert guidelines and epidemiological reports ignore this fundamental fact – cardiac events in nearly every country fluctuate with predictable climatic transitions (seasons) and random external provocations (including noise and air pollution plus unseasonal cold snaps and heat waves). Climate change, in the form of more unpredictable weather (including more sustained heat waves) will only exacerbate the problem, especially among the world’s poorest people. Heart Disease and Climate Change articulates why this phenomenon occurs, how climate change is likely to exacerbate the problem (thereby harming economies/stifling Development Goals) and what we need to do to mitigate the impact of climate change on heart health. It identifies key areas for future research/reporting of cardiac events and hence is an essential reference for all interested in the management of patients in cardiovascular medicine, from cardiologists, internists and primary care physicians to healthcare administrators, climate researchers and politicians.