Assessing the Environmental Effects on Dengue Fever and Malaysian Economic Growth

Abstract

Environmental degradation is prone to increase severe weather conditions, such as heat waves and prolonged rainfall. The purpose of the study is to examine the effect of climate factors (temperature, rainfall, rain days, humidity, sea level pressure), floods and extreme events like tropical storm, tornado, typhoon and strong wind on dengue fever cases and Malaysian economic growth in the period of year 2014-2020. A correlation test was used to find the relationship between the independent, dependent and moderating variables. The study was carried out using secondary monthly data. The results showed a significant correlation between the climate change, dengue fever cases and economic growth in Malaysia. Temperature, humidity, sea level pressure and rain fall revealed a positive correlation with dengue fever cases, while rainy days and floods showed negative correlations. Besides that, increase of temperature, humidity, sea level pressure and floods moderate with dengue fever cases significantly lead to a lower economic growth.