Belova Anna, Silva Raquel A, Vorndran Dylan M, Sampson Natalie R
ICF Inc, Fairfax, Virginia, United States of America.
University of Michigan-Dearborn, Dearborn, Michigan, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2025 Apr 29;20(4):e0321309. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0321309. eCollection 2025.
Public health has increasingly recognized the links between climate change and health, emphasizing the need to address related inequities. This is reflected in work led by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the U.S. National Climate Assessment, and leading health-related professional associations, such as the American Public Health Association (APHA). We ask how the focus of climate change-related topics in public health discourse has evolved, and what does this signal about the field's role and capacity to address this global crisis?
We analyzed close to 41,000 abstracts from APHA annual meetings (2017-2023). Using a combination of large language models and expert review, we identified and analyzed over 1,100 abstracts with climate change-related content. We used a fine-tuned OpenAI GPT-3.5 model to detect abstracts with climate change-related content and the Claude 3.0 Sonnet model to categorize these abstracts into 21 themes and 12 health outcome categories.
Since 2017, the discussion of climate change at APHA has declined both in terms of volume and topic diversity. The impacts of climate change on heat-related illness, stress and mental illness, and vector-borne diseases were the most common topics discussed. Fewer abstracts discussed the role of public health, workforce development, and policy and advocacy, with slightly more attention focused on health communication and education.
Although this is only a snapshot of recent discourse in the field, trends suggest the need to build capacity for climate action. Addressing the climate crisis is not solely an environmental health issue; it is a public health issue. Advocates, policymakers, and scholars know that innovative and intersectoral solutions are critical for effective and equitable climate action. However, within public health, we must work together and jointly contribute to reducing the unequal and extensive burdens associated with our changing climate.
公共卫生领域越来越认识到气候变化与健康之间的联系，强调有必要解决相关的不平等问题。政府间气候变化专门委员会、《联合国气候变化框架公约》、美国国家气候评估以及美国公共卫生协会（APHA）等主要健康相关专业协会所主导的工作都反映了这一点。我们探讨公共卫生话语中与气候变化相关主题的重点是如何演变的，以及这对该领域应对这一全球危机的作用和能力意味着什么？
我们分析了美国公共卫生协会年会（2017 - 2023年）近41000篇摘要。通过结合大语言模型和专家评审，我们识别并分析了1100多篇与气候变化相关内容的摘要。我们使用经过微调的OpenAI GPT - 3.5模型来检测与气候变化相关内容的摘要，并使用Claude 3.0 Sonnet模型将这些摘要分类为21个主题和12个健康结果类别。
自2017年以来，美国公共卫生协会对气候变化的讨论在数量和主题多样性方面都有所下降。气候变化对与热相关疾病、压力和精神疾病以及媒介传播疾病的影响是讨论最常见的主题。较少的摘要讨论了公共卫生的作用、劳动力发展以及政策与倡导，对健康沟通和教育的关注略多一些。
尽管这只是该领域近期话语的一个快照，但趋势表明需要建设气候行动能力。应对气候危机不仅仅是一个环境卫生问题；它是一个公共卫生问题。倡导者、政策制定者和学者都知道，创新和跨部门解决方案对于有效和公平的气候行动至关重要。然而，在公共卫生领域内，我们必须共同努力，共同为减少与气候变化相关的不平等和广泛负担做出贡献。
