Research Team Leaders:Weibing Wang
 

a.Objectives

The overall aim of this project is to evaluate the disease burden from environmental risk factors. Specifically, we aim to provide estimates by quantitative assessment of the burden of disease from environmental risk factors at national or regional level; to estimate the benefit that could be avoided by making possible reductions in the exposure; to determine the impact on transmission model due of major infectious diseases due to climate change and extreme climate; and to develop the conceptual and practical implementation of environmental disease burden assessment and sharing experience to define priorities in future developments.

b.Fit to Fudan Tyndall Centre Research Strategy

This program will bring together scientists in preventive medicine, health economists, engineers and social scientists to research, assess and communicate from a distinct trans-disciplinary perspective, the options to mitigate, and the necessities to adapt to current climate change and continuing global warming, and to integrate these into the global and local contexts of sustainable development.

c.Methods 

The disease burden comprises the total amount of disease or premature death within the population. The widely-used Disability-Adjusted Life Year (DALY) is the sum of: (i) years of life lost due to premature death (YLL), and (ii) years of life lived with disability (YLD). Systematic reviews will be compiled using published data and Secondary data. We will use multivariate models to estimates the conparative risk of exposure to establish a quantitative climate-health relationship. This enables the calculation of a relative risk for the health outcomes under each of the various future climate scenarios. The disease burden attributable to climate change is then estimated by multiplying this relative risk by the total burden of chronic diseases that would have been expected to occur in the absence of climate change. We will use time-series designs and space-time comparisons provide good evidence that a range of health impacts are sensitive to variations in meteorological conditions of a scale comparable to the climate changes. 

d.International Collaborations 

This program will be able to strengthen scientific collaboration between the project teams and top-level research teams worldwide. Workshops will be hold to develop  academic communications and activities between Fudan team and other colleagues over the world. Visits from famous professors to Fudan will be possible due to this program. 

e. Outputs.

Based on the analysis of effects on health outcomes and disease burden caused by climate change as well as the costs/benefits of potential action, strategies to reduce the impacts from climate change will be proposed. According to the above studies, the study group will compile the main results into scientific reports and paper. The results will be disseminated by publications and being reported in international and domestic conferences on related topics.