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. 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.

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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

References

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