A systematic review on the impact of climate change on occupational mental health: a focus on vulnerable industries.

IF 3.5 2区医学 Q1 PSYCHIATRY

Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology Pub Date : 2025-10-01 Epub Date: 2025-06-05 DOI:10.1007/s00127-025-02936-x

Wymann Shao Wen Tang, Cyrus Su Hui Ho

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Aims: This systematic review aims to examine how climate change and its related stressors may affect the mental health of workers in industries vulnerable to climate change. The review also seeks to evaluate coping strategies used by affected workers, as well as potential interventions to mitigate and prevent these mental health effects.

Method: A literature search was conducted in June 2024 in databases such as PUBMED, EMBASE, PsycINFO and Web of Science, using a combination of keywords about climate change, mental health or illness, and vulnerable industries.

Results: A predominance of accessed literature was related to the agricultural industry, with a minority pertaining to the aquaculture, construction and aviation industries. They suggest an increased vulnerability of workers to mental health-related problems, including increased depression, anxiety, psychological distress and suicidality in response to stressors such as increased temperatures and prolonged drought conditions. Besides socioeconomic effects resulting from reduced productivity, climate-related stressors may contribute to increased uncertainty, isolation, a perceived lack of control, and challenges to their sense of identity. Coping methods varied and influenced outcomes of mental wellbeing, with community wellbeing and social connectedness in the agricultural setting being observed to have beneficial effects on levels of psychological distress. Interventions that promoted mental health literacy, the availability of mental health first aid, social cohesion, and adaptability to climate stressors were deemed helpful.

Conclusion: Environmental stressors interact with mental health in an intricate manner, exerting influence on biological and socioeconomic aspects of a person's well-being. In an occupational setting, such stressors may also affect social cohesion and one's personal sense of identity or self-esteem. Building strong social networks and structures to enable self-efficacy and adaptability towards climate change may be key towards promoting mental health resilience amongst workers in vulnerable industries.

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气候变化对职业心理健康影响的系统综述：以脆弱行业为重点。

目的：本系统综述旨在研究气候变化及其相关压力源如何影响易受气候变化影响的行业工人的心理健康。审查还试图评估受影响工人使用的应对策略，以及减轻和预防这些心理健康影响的潜在干预措施。方法：于2024年6月在PUBMED、EMBASE、PsycINFO、Web of Science等数据库中，结合气候变化、心理健康或疾病、脆弱行业等关键词进行文献检索。结果：被检索文献以农业相关文献为主，水产养殖、建筑业和航空业相关文献占少数。它们表明，工人越来越容易受到心理健康问题的影响，包括在应对温度升高和长期干旱等压力因素时，抑郁、焦虑、心理困扰和自杀倾向增加。除了生产力下降造成的社会经济影响外，与气候有关的压力因素还可能导致不确定性增加、孤立、被认为缺乏控制以及对其认同感的挑战。应对方法各不相同，并影响心理健康的结果，据观察，农业环境中的社区福利和社会联系对心理困扰水平有有益影响。促进心理健康素养、提供心理健康急救、社会凝聚力和适应气候压力的干预措施被认为是有帮助的。结论：环境压力源以复杂的方式与心理健康相互作用，对个体健康的生物学和社会经济方面产生影响。在职业环境中，这些压力源也可能影响社会凝聚力和个人认同感或自尊。建立强大的社会网络和结构，以实现自我效能和对气候变化的适应性，可能是促进脆弱行业工人心理健康复原力的关键。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 医学-精神病学

CiteScore

8.50

自引率

2.30%

发文量

184

审稿时长

3-6 weeks

期刊介绍： Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology is intended to provide a medium for the prompt publication of scientific contributions concerned with all aspects of the epidemiology of psychiatric disorders - social, biological and genetic. In addition, the journal has a particular focus on the effects of social conditions upon behaviour and the relationship between psychiatric disorders and the social environment. Contributions may be of a clinical nature provided they relate to social issues, or they may deal with specialised investigations in the fields of social psychology, sociology, anthropology, epidemiology, health service research, health economies or public mental health. We will publish papers on cross-cultural and trans-cultural themes. We do not publish case studies or small case series. While we will publish studies of reliability and validity of new instruments of interest to our readership, we will not publish articles reporting on the performance of established instruments in translation. Both original work and review articles may be submitted.