Year: 2023
Type: review
Study design: Systematic Review
Abstract: Desert dust and sandstorms are recurring environmental phenomena that are reported to produce serious health risks worldwide. This scoping review was conducted to identify the most likely health effects of desert dust and sandstorms and the methods used to characterize desert dust exposure from the existing epidemiological literature. We systematically searched PubMed/MEDLINE, Web of Science, and Scopus to identify studies that reported the effects of desert dust and sandstorms on human health. Search terms referred to desert dust or sandstorm exposure, names of major deserts, and health outcomes. Health effects were cross-tabulated with study design variables (e.g., epidemiological design and methods to quantify dust exposure), desert dust source, health outcomes and conditions. We identified 204 studies that met the inclusion criteria for the scoping review. More than half of the studies (52.9%) used a time-series study design. However, we found a substantial variation in the methods used to identify and quantify desert dust exposure. The binary metric of dust exposure was more frequently used than the continuous metric for all desert dust source locations. Most studies (84.8%) reported significant associations between desert dust and adverse health effects, mainly for respiratory and cardiovascular mortality and morbidity causes. Although there is a large body of evidence on the health effects of desert dust and sandstorms, the existing epidemiological studies have significant limitations related to exposure measurement and statistical analysis that potentially contribute to inconsistencies in determining the effect of desert dust on human health.
Source: GeoHealth
DOI: 10.1029/2022gh000728
Institutions: The University of Tokyo, Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research, Nagasaki University, Iberoamerican Cochrane Centre, Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Epidemiología y Salud Pública, National Institute for Health and Care Research, Imperial College London, Stanford University, Regione Lazio, American University of Beirut
Language: English
Subfield: Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,400
Funders: National Institute for Health Research Health Protection Research Unit, National Institute for Health and Care Research, Imperial College London, MRC-PHE Centre for Environment and Health, Medical Research Council, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Japan Science and Technology Agency, Agencia Estatal de Investigación, NIHR Imperial Biomedical Research Centre, Strategic International Collaborative Research Program
Awards: アジアにおける気候変動と人間の健康：現在の影響、将来リスク、および緩和政策の健康便益, G1600434916, G2262748287, G2434155238, Spatio-temporal assessment of the health effects of air pollution and its related effect modifiers using satellite data, G300979063, G3480869486, G4009644718, G425668148, G436836367, G4859308319, Estimating Excess Mortality Due to Climate Change: A Multi-Country Collaborative Study in Environmental Epidemiology, G4996865202, G5080475149, G6553275490, G6989610154, Health effects of local and transboundary particulate air pollution in Japan: a multi-city study, 古代説話における諸寺縁起の研究, G7620008496, G7969243411, G8343891130, G8375537766
OpenAlex ID: W4322735438