Centre for Disaster Medicine, Gothenburg University, Gothenburg, Sweden.
Joint Centre for Defence Medicine, Swedish Armed Forces, Gothenburg, Sweden.
Front Public Health. 2023 May 4;11:1099031. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1099031. eCollection 2023.
Climate change has effects on multiple aspects of human life, such as access to food and water, expansion of endemic diseases as well as an increase of natural disasters and related diseases. The objective of this review is to summarize the current knowledge on climate change effects on military occupational health, military healthcare in a deployed setting, and defense medical logistics.
Online databases and registers were searched on August 22, 2022 and 348 papers retrieved, published between 2000 and 2022, from which we selected 8 publications that described climate effects on military health. Papers were clustered according to a modified theoretical framework for climate change effects on health, and relevant items from each paper were summarized.
During the last decades a growing body of climate change related publications was identified, which report that climate change has a significant impact on human physiology, mental health, water- and vector borne infectious diseases, as well as air pollution. However, regarding the specific climate effects on military health the level of evidence is low. The effects on defense medical logistics include vulnerabilities in the cold supply chain, in medical devices functioning, in need for air conditioning, and in fresh water supply.
Climate change may transform both the theoretical framework and practical implementations in military medicine and military healthcare systems. There are significant knowledge gaps on climate change effects on the health of military personnel in operations of both combat and non-combat nature, alerting the need for prevention and mitigation of climate-related health issues. Further research within the fields of disaster and military medicine is needed to explore this novel field. As climate effects on humans and the medical supply chain may degrade military capability, significant investments in military medical research and development are needed.
气候变化对人类生活的多个方面都有影响，如获取食物和水、地方病的蔓延以及自然灾害和相关疾病的增加。本综述的目的是总结气候变化对军事职业健康、部署环境下的军事医疗保健以及国防医疗后勤的影响的现有知识。
我们于 2022 年 8 月 22 日检索了在线数据库和登记册，并检索到 348 篇论文，这些论文发表于 2000 年至 2022 年期间，从中选择了 8 篇描述气候变化对军事健康影响的论文。根据气候变化对健康影响的理论框架，将论文进行分类，并对每篇论文的相关内容进行总结。
在过去几十年中，已经确定了越来越多的与气候变化相关的出版物，这些出版物报告说，气候变化对人类生理、心理健康、水媒和媒介传播传染病以及空气污染有重大影响。然而，关于气候变化对军事健康的具体影响，证据水平较低。对国防医疗后勤的影响包括冷链供应、医疗器械功能、空调需求以及淡水供应方面的脆弱性。
气候变化可能改变军事医学和军事医疗保健系统的理论框架和实际实施。关于军事人员在作战和非作战性质的行动中的气候变化对健康的影响，存在重大知识差距，这提醒人们需要预防和减轻与气候相关的健康问题。需要在灾害医学和军事医学领域开展进一步研究，以探索这一新兴领域。由于气候对人类和医疗供应链的影响可能会降低军事能力，因此需要对军事医学研究和开发进行重大投资。
