A study has revealed that climate change adversely impacts the mental health of people who live in Bangladesh – a country considered one of the most vulnerable to devastation from the crisis, yet one of the least responsible for it.
The study was published Sunday in the journal Lancet Planetary Health, reports CNET.
Examining the relationship between climate related events and mental health, the study was conducted by scientists at Georgetown University and colleagues at George Washington University and the World Bank in Bangladesh.
“We have now established a high-water mark that alas could soon be eclipsed for how climate can impact mental health in a highly vulnerable country,” Syed Shabab Wahid, lead author of the study, said in a statement.
An assistant professor in the department of global health at Georgetown University's School of Health, Wahid added, “This should serve as a warning for other nations.”
Led by Wahid, the team of researchers measured climate-related variables at 43 weather stations in Bangladesh for changes in seasonal temperatures and humidity over a two-month period, and noted instances of exposure to flooding from study respondents.
Then they surveyed 7,000 citizens in both urban and rural areas first in August and September 2019, and then again in January and February 2020, to assess how subjects’ anxiety and depression changed amid weather fluctuations tied to global warming.
The results revealed that people who experienced higher temperatures (by 1 degree Celsius) during the two months preceding the study had a 21 per cent higher probability of having an anxiety disorder and a 24 per cent higher probability of having depression.
An increase in humidity (specifically, a 1 gram of moisture increase per cubic meter of air) created a 6 per cent higher probability of having both anxiety and depression, too, the paper suggested.
“As climate change worsens, temperatures and humidity will continue to increase, as will natural disasters, such as extreme flooding, which portends a worsening impact on our collective mental health, globally,” Wahid said.
In terms of natural disasters, the study found climate change-induced flooding led to an increased probability of depression by 31 per cent, anxiety by 69 per cent, and both together by a staggering 87 per cent.
“Our next steps are twofold. We want to develop and evaluate community-based interventions that are culturally appropriate for Bangladesh, such as offering mental health services to climate-affected communities, of which there are many throughout the country,” Wahid said.
“We also plan to conduct further research in Bangladesh and globally, on the associations identified in this study, using longer-term approaches to narrow down the causes and effects of climate changes on mental health,” he added.
