Health Impacts of Climate Change on Children and Adolescents: A Protocol for Review of Reviews

RILWAN YAHAYA , SALIFU SHARIF ALHASSAN, ROSEMARY SITSOFE AYEBI-ARTHUR, REGINA BOATEMAA BERCHIE, EDWARD WILSON ANSAH

Introduction

Climate change is a contemporary phenomenon of a grave concern to the global public health. Climate change events like extreme heat, rising sea levels, floods, food insecurity and others, significantly affect local, regional, and global life conditions. The climate crisis affects the health of the elderly, adults, workers, children and adolescents. However, climate change events are gravely impacting the current and future health and well-being of children and adolescents. Though there are evidence from synthesises their integration is vital for policy and practice to protecting children and adolescents in the ever-changing climate. Therefore, this review aims to re-map the existing reviews of the impact of climate change on the health and well-being of children and adolescents.

Method

This review will be carried out according to Arksey and O'Malley's (2005) recommendations and report based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension of Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR). Scopus, JSTOR, Web of Science, PubMed, Embase and PsycInfo will be searched to identify relevant records for inclusion in this review. Additional searches will be conducted in Google Scholar and Google for other relevant articles.

Analysis

Extracted data will be analysed using thematic content analysis, where data are summarised and qualitatively synthesised according to the recommendations of PRISMA-ScR and Tricco et al. (2018). The results and findings regarding the impacts of climate change on the health and safety of children and adolescents will be compiled, categorized, and presented using a qualitative narrative synthesis.