Determinants and relationships of climate change, climate change hazards, mental health, and well-being: a systematic review

Introduction: Impacts of climate change on human health receive increasing attention. However, the connections of climate change with well-being and mental health are still poorly understood. Objective: As part of the Horizon Europe project TRIGGER, we aim to deepen the understanding of the relationships between climate change and human mental health and well-being in Europe by focusing on environmental and socio-individual determinants. Methods: This study is a systematic literature review based on the PRISMA guidelines using Embase, Medline and Web of Science. Results: 143 records were retrieved. The results show that climate change and its specific hazards (air pollution, floods, wildfires, meteorological variables, and temperature extremes) impact human well-being and mental health. Discussion: Mental health and well-being outcomes are complex, extremely individual, and can be long lasting. Determinants like the living surrounding, human’s life activities as well as socio-individual determinants alter the linkage between climate change and mental health. The same determinant can exert both a pathogenic and a salutogenic effect, depending on the outcome. Knowing the effects of the determinants is of high relevance to improve resilience. Several pathways were identified. For instance, higher level of education and female gender lead to perceiving climate change as a bigger threat but increase preparedness to climate hazards. Elderly, children and adolescents are at higher risks of mental health problems. On the other hand, social relation, cohesiveness and support from family and friends are generally protective. Green and blue spaces improve well-being and mental health. Overall, comparing the different hazard-outcome relationships is difficult due to varying definitions, measurement techniques, spatial and temporal range, scales, indicators and population samples. Systematic Review Registration: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/home, identifier CRD42023426758.