Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 Jun 18;14(6):e080241.
doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2023-080241.

Climate change-induced shifts in the food systems and diet-related non-communicable diseases in sub-Saharan Africa: a scoping review and a conceptual framework

Janet Tapkigen  1 , Seeromanie Harding  2 , Jutta Pulkki  3 , Salla Atkins  3   4 , Meri Koivusalo  3   5
Affiliations

Climate change-induced shifts in the food systems and diet-related non-communicable diseases in sub-Saharan Africa: a scoping review and a conceptual framework

Janet Tapkigen et al. BMJ Open. .

Abstract

Objectives: To determine the relationship between climate change, food systems and diet-related non-communicable diseases (DR-NCDs) in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and propose a conceptual framework for food systems in SSA.

Design: A scoping review.

Eligibility criteria: Studies included investigated the relationship between climate change and related systemic risks, food systems, DR-NCDs and its risk factors in SSA. Studies focusing on the association between climate change and DR-NCDs unrelated to food systems, such as social inequalities, were excluded.

Sources of evidence: A comprehensive search was conducted in ProQuest (nine databases), Google Scholar and PubMed in December 2022.

Charting methods: Data extracted from studies included author, study type, country of study, climate change component, DR-NCD outcomes and risk factors, and impacts of climate change on DR-NCDs. A narrative approach was used to analyse the data. Based on the evidence gathered from SSA, we modified an existing food system conceptual framework.

Results: The search retrieved 19 125 studies, 10 of which were included in the review. Most studies used a cross-sectional design (n=8). Four explored the influence of temperature on liver cancer through food storage while four explored the influence of temperature and rainfall on diabetes and obesity through food production. Cross-sectional evidence suggested that temperature is associated with liver cancer and rainfall with diabetes.

Conclusion: The review highlights the vulnerability of SSA's food systems to climate change-induced fluctuations, which in turn affect dietary patterns and DR-NCD outcomes. The evidence is scarce and concentrates mostly on the health effects of temperature through food storage. It proposes a conceptual framework to guide future research addressing climate change and DR-NCDs in SSA.

Keywords: climate change; epidemiology; public health.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
HLPE. Nutrition and food systems. A report by the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition of the Committee on World Food Security, Rome. 2017 . This is the original HLPE framework. The food supply chains in this framework are henceforth referred to as pathways in this review. HLPE- high-level panel of experts.
Figure 2
Figure 2
PRISMA flow diagram: This diagram shows the systematic process we followed to include articles by our search framework.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Food systems conceptual framework for sub-Saharan Africa: HLPE-SSA. Figure adapted from HLPE. 2017 . Arrows show the expected causal effect. HLPE, high-level panel of experts; DR-NCDs, diet related non-communicable diseases; SSA, sub-Saharan Africa.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

  • Climate change and tuberculosis: an analytical framework.
    Saunders MJ, Boccia D, Khan PY, Goscè L, Gasparrini A, Clark RA, Pescarini JM, White RG, Houben RM, Zignol M, Gebreselassie N, McQuaid CF. Saunders MJ, et al. medRxiv [Preprint]. 2025 Feb 20:2025.02.18.25322451. doi: 10.1101/2025.02.18.25322451. medRxiv. 2025. PMID: 40034780 Free PMC article. Preprint.

References

    1. World Health Organization . Noncommunicable diseases: key facts. 2022.
    1. Gouda HN, Charlson F, Sorsdahl K, et al. . Burden of non-communicable diseases in sub-Saharan Africa, 1990–2017: results from the global burden of disease study 2017. Lancet Glob Health 2019;7:e1375–87. 10.1016/S2214-109X(19)30374-2 - DOI - PubMed
    1. World Health Organization . Sustainable Healthy Diets – Guiding Principles. Rome: World Health Organization, 2019.
    1. Pingault N, Caron P, Kalafatic C, et al. . Nutrition and food systems. A report by the high level panel of experts on food security and nutrition of the Committee on world food security. 2017.
    1. Fanzo J, Davis C. Global food systems, diets, and nutrition. In: Global food systems, diets, and nutrition: linking science, economics, and policy. Cham: Springer Nature, 2021. Available: https://link.springer.com/10.1007/978-3-030-72763-5

Publication types