Effects of Climate Change on Cardiovascular Diseases

Mitigation measures and take home messages

Since individual personal-level interventions are somewhat limited in dealing with CVD health problems originating from larger, hierarchicial, systemic processes, a multilevel intervention from an individual to a system or worldwide approach is required. At the individual level, guidance should be provided on mitigation of the major CVD risk factors for vulnerable populations. In the case of extreme heat, this involves:

Ø Avoiding outdoor activities during days with extreme heat conditions.

Ø Maintaining proper hydration. 

Ø Utilising indoor thermal control systems.

As regards air pollution, recommendations would include:

Ø Avoiding outdoor exercise activity on days with elevated pollution levels.

Ø Use of N95 or fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) masks.

Ø Use of indoor air purifiers.

Ø Installation of heating, ventilation and air conditioning units with a high-efficiency particulate air filter

Ø Vulnerable patients should also avoid using gas stoves, fireplaces and incense, which can all exacerbate indoor air pollution.

At the system/worldwide level, mitigations would involve:

Ø Climate-resilient infrastructure, designed and constructed to withstand, respond to and rapidly recover from disruptions caused by climate extremes.

Ø Healthy buildings to promote thermal comfort.

Ø Heat–health action plans (HHAPs) (developed by the World Health Organisation regional office for Europe). HHAPs include guidance for a collaborative response to excessive heat conditions, timely alert systems, information dissemination, reduction in indoor heat exposure, emergency response of health-care systems and urban planning.

Key take-home messages include:

1. Climate-change related CVD should be mitigated by interventions that involve cross-disciplinary collaboration between physicians, researchers, public health workers, political scientists, legislators and national leaders.

2. Key vulnerable populations are the elderly, outdoor workers, ethnic minority groups, pregnant women and children living in poor socioeconomic conditions.

3. Physicians and the wider medical community must be conveyors of climate change-related health information to the public, as part of their professional practice.