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. 2023 May 4:11:1099031.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1099031. eCollection 2023.

Does climate change transform military medicine and defense medical support?

Yohan Robinson  1   2 , Amir Khorram-Manesh  1 , Niclas Arvidsson  1   2 , Cave Sinai  1   2 , Fabian Taube  1   2
Affiliations

Does climate change transform military medicine and defense medical support?

Yohan Robinson et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: Climate change has effects on multiple aspects of human life, such as access to food and water, expansion of endemic diseases as well as an increase of natural disasters and related diseases. The objective of this review is to summarize the current knowledge on climate change effects on military occupational health, military healthcare in a deployed setting, and defense medical logistics.

Methods: Online databases and registers were searched on August 22nd, 2022 and 348 papers retrieved, published between 2000 and 2022, from which we selected 8 publications that described climate effects on military health. Papers were clustered according to a modified theoretical framework for climate change effects on health, and relevant items from each paper were summarized.

Results: During the last decades a growing body of climate change related publications was identified, which report that climate change has a significant impact on human physiology, mental health, water- and vector borne infectious diseases, as well as air pollution. However, regarding the specific climate effects on military health the level of evidence is low. The effects on defense medical logistics include vulnerabilities in the cold supply chain, in medical devices functioning, in need for air conditioning, and in fresh water supply.

Conclusions: Climate change may transform both the theoretical framework and practical implementations in military medicine and military healthcare systems. There are significant knowledge gaps on climate change effects on the health of military personnel in operations of both combat and non-combat nature, alerting the need for prevention and mitigation of climate-related health issues. Further research within the fields of disaster and military medicine is needed to explore this novel field. As climate effects on humans and the medical supply chain may degrade military capability, significant investments in military medical research and development are needed.

Keywords: climate change; defense medical support; medical logistics; military medicine; preventive medicine.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Inclusion flow chart.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The number of eligible publications found within databases increased linearly between 2000 and 2022 (r = 0.73).
Figure 3
Figure 3
The modified conceptual diagram of the U.S. Global Change Research Program illustrating the exposure pathways by which climate change affects military health outcomes was used as framework for this review (3). According to this framework, exposure pathways exist within the context of other factors that positively or negatively influence military health outcomes, as depicted in the gray boxes.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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