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Climate change and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are considered the 21 st Century’s major health and development challenges. Both pose a disproportionate burden on low- and middle-income countries that are unprepared to cope with their synergistic effects. These two challenges pose risks for achieving many of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and are both impacted by globalization through different pathways. While there are important insights on how climate change and or globalization impact NCDs in the general literature, comprehensive research that explores the influence of climate change and or globalization on NCDs is limited, particularly in the context of Africa. This review documents the pathways through which climate change and or globalization influence NCDs in Africa. We conducted a comprehensive literature search in eight electronic databases—Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus, Global Health Library, Science Direct, Medline, ProQuest, and Google Scholar. A total of 13864 studies were identified. Studies that were identified from more than one of the databases were automatically removed as duplicates (n = 9649). Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, a total of 27 studies were eventually included in the final review. We found that the impacts of climate change and or globalization on NCDs act through three potential pathways: reduction in food production and nutrition, urbanization and transformation of food systems. Our review contributes to the existing literature by providing insights into the impact of climate change and or globalization on human health. We believe that our findings will help enlighten policy makers working on these pathways to facilitate the development of effective policy and public health interventions to mitigate the effects of climate change and globalization on the rising burden of NCDs and goal 3 of the SDG, in particular.

Food waste is a routine and increasingly growing global concern that has drawn significant attention from policymakers, climate change activists and health practitioners. Amid the plurality of discourses on food waste-health linkages, however, the health risks from food waste induced emissions have remained under explored. This lack of evidence is partly because of the lack of complete understanding of the effects of food waste emissions from household food waste on human health either directly through physiological mechanisms or indirectly through environmental exposure effects. Thus, this systematic review contributes to the literature by synthesizing available evidence to highlight gaps and offers a comprehensive baseline inventory of food waste emissions and their associated impacts on human health to support public health decision-making. Four database searches: Web of Science, OVID(Medline), EMBASE, and Scopus, were searched from inception to 3 May 2023. Pairs of reviewers screened 2189 potentially eligible studies that addressed food waste emissions from consumers and how the emissions related to human health. Following PRISMA guidelines, 26 articles were eligible for data extraction for the systematic review. Findings indicate that emissions from food waste, such as hydrogen sulphide, ammonia, and volatile organic carbons, can affect human endocrine, respiratory, nervous, and olfactory systems. The severity of the human health effects depends on the gaseous concentration, but range from mild lung irritation to cancer and death. This study recommends emission capture technologies, food diversion programs, and biogas technologies to reduce food waste emissions.

Over the past few years, food insecurity has been increasing globally due to the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, economic downturns and conflict and a number of other intersecting factors. Older adults residing in low- and middle-income countries are more vulnerable to food insecurity. While the impacts of food insecurity on physical health outcomes have been thoroughly researched, the effect on mental health outcomes remains under-researched, especially among older adults. Hence, this systematic review aims to investigate existing literature to assess how food insecurity impacts the mental health of older persons residing in LMICs. A systematic search of six databases and Google for studies was conducted. The search was limited to studies written in English and published between 2000 to the present. We identified 725 studies, out of which 40 studies were selected for a full-text review and 12 studies were included for a final analysis. The significant finding in all the included studies was that food insecurity is associated with the worsening mental health of older adults. We also found a complex interplay of factors such as gender, age, rural/urban and health conditions associated with the aggravation of several mental health outcomes. The findings of this study illuminate the need for improved food programs to improve food security and, consequently, mental health among older adults.

Gendered roles and household responsibilities characterize the social fabric of many patriarchal societies where traditional norms often dictate a clear division of labor between men and women. These deeply entrenched gendered expectations, for several decades, continue to shape the daily lives, opportunities, the physical and psychological wellbeing of women. In the semi-arid regions of Ghana, patriarchy and traditional gender norms are particularly pronounced. Utilizing data from a cross-sectional survey (N = 1100 smallholder farmers), this study examined the role of women's autonomy on shared-household responsibilities (SHRs). The composite measure of women's autonomy was statistically robust (α = 0.823). Women's autonomy was associated with increased odds of shared responsibility for childcare (OR=1.872; P < 0.001) but less so with laundry (OR=0.635; P < 0.001) and food preparation (OR=0.764; P < 0.05). However, female-headed households were more associated with shared responsibility for laundry (OR=5.617; P < 0.001) and food preparation (OR=2.546; P < 0.05) with no significant observation for childcare. Regarding marital structure, polygamous households were less associated with shared responsibility for laundry (OR=0.233; P < 0.01) and food preparation (OR=0.361; P < 0.01) with no significant observation for childcare. Moreover, religion, age, and household wealth significantly predicted shared household responsibilities in the study context. Women's autonomy is strongly associated with shared responsibility for childcare, but less associated with laundry and food preparation in Semi-Arid Northern Ghana, with notable differences based on household headship, marital structure, religion, age, and wealth. Findings underscore the need for more policies and programs that seeks to empower women at the household levels in rural agrarian settings.

Area-level factors may partly explain the heterogeneity in risk factors and disease distribution. Yet, there are a limited number of studies that focus on the development and validation of the area level construct and are primarily from high-income countries. The main objective of the study is to provide a methodological approach to construct and validate the area level construct, the Area Level Deprivation Index in low resource setting. A total of 14652 individuals from 11,203 households within 383 clusters (or areas) were selected from 2016-Nepal Demographic and Health survey. The index development involved sequential steps that included identification and screening of variables, variable reduction and extraction of the factors, and assessment of reliability and validity. Variables that could explain the underlying latent structure of area-level deprivation were selected from the dataset. These variables included: housing structure, household assets, and availability and accessibility of physical infrastructures such as roads, health care facilities, nearby towns, and geographic terrain. Initially, 26-variables were selected for the index development. A unifactorial model with 15-variables had the best fit to represent the underlying structure for area-level deprivation evidencing strong internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.93). Standardized scores for index ranged from 58.0 to 140.0, with higher scores signifying greater area-level deprivation. The newly constructed index showed relatively strong criterion validity with multi-dimensional poverty index (Pearson’s correlation coefficient = 0.77) and relatively strong construct validity (Comparative Fit Index = 0.96; Tucker-Lewis Index = 0.94; standardized root mean square residual = 0.05; Root mean square error of approximation = 0.079). The factor structure was relatively consistent across different administrative regions. Area level deprivation index was constructed, and its validity and reliability was assessed. The index provides an opportunity to explore the area-level influence on disease outcome and health disparity.

Climate change threatens the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in the Global South. In semi-arid northern Ghana, where over 73% of the population is engaged in smallholder agriculture, climate-induced food insecurity is of major concern. Livelihood diversification is acknowledged to have the potential to improve climate resilience in smallholder farming systems through risk spreading. That notwithstanding, little is known about the links between livelihood diversification strategies and climate resilience in such vulnerable settings. Drawing data from a cross-sectional survey with 1100 smallholder households in semi-arid northern Ghana, this study contributes to the literature by examining the association between livelihood diversification and climate change resilience. Findings from logistic regression analysis revealed that smallholder farming households that practiced only farm diversification (OR = 4.66; p  ≤ 0.001) and a combination of both farm and nonfarm diversification (OR = 6.28; p  ≤ 0.001) had significantly higher odds of reporting stronger resilience to climate change compared to those who did not employ any diversification strategy. The study further revealed that land preparation techniques, source of climate information, and religion were significantly associated with smallholder farmers’ perceived climate change resilience. These findings point to the need for agricultural policy to promote both farm and nonfarm livelihoods as complementary risk-spreading strategies. Exploring the synergies between farm and nonfarm livelihoods may prove beneficial in semi-arid agrarian contexts. In doing so, critical contextual dynamics such as source of farm power and sources of climate information must not be overlooked.

The causes and health risks associated with obesity in young people have been extensively documented, but elderly obesity is less well understood, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. This study examines the relationship between obesity and the risk of chronic diseases, cognitive impairment, and functional disability among the elderly in Ghana. It highlights the social and cultural dimensions of elderly obesity and discusses the implications of related health risks using a socio-ecological model. We used data from wave 1 of the Ghana Study on Global Ageing and Adult Health (SAGE) survey-2007/8, with a restricted sample of 2,091 for those 65 years and older. Using random effects multinomial, ordered, and binary logit models, we examined the relationship between obesity and the risk of stage 1 and stage 2 hypertension, arthritis, difficulties with recall and learning new tasks, and deficiencies with activities of daily living and instrumental activities of daily living. Elderly Ghanaians who were overweight and obese had a higher risk of stage 1 and stage 2 hypertension, and were more likely to be diagnosed with arthritis and report severe deficiencies with instrumental activities of daily living. Those who were underweight were 1.71 times more likely to report severe difficulties with activities of daily living. A sub analysis using waist circumference as a measure of body fat showed elderly females with abdominal adiposity were relatively more likely to have stage 2 hypertension. These findings call for urgent policy initiatives geared towards reducing obesity among working adults given the potentially detrimental consequences in late adulthood. Future research should explore the gendered pathways leading to health disadvantages among Ghanaian women in late adulthood.

Mapping crop types and land cover in smallholder farming systems in sub-Saharan Africa remains a challenge due to data costs, high cloud cover, and poor temporal resolution of satellite data. With improvement in satellite technology and image processing techniques, there is a potential for integrating data from sensors with different spectral characteristics and temporal resolutions to effectively map crop types and land cover. In our Malawi study area, it is common that there are no cloud-free images available for the entire crop growth season. The goal of this experiment is to produce detailed crop type and land cover maps in agricultural landscapes using the Sentinel-1 (S-1) radar data, Sentinel-2 (S-2) optical data, S-2 and PlanetScope data fusion, and S-1 C2 matrix and S-1 H/α polarimetric decomposition. We evaluated the ability to combine these data to map crop types and land cover in two smallholder farming locations. The random forest algorithm, trained with crop and land cover type data collected in the field, complemented with samples digitized from Google Earth Pro and DigitalGlobe, was used for the classification experiments. The results show that the S-2 and PlanetScope fused image + S-1 covariance (C2) matrix + H/α polarimetric decomposition (an entropy-based decomposition method) fusion outperformed all other image combinations, producing higher overall accuracies (OAs) (>85%) and Kappa coefficients (>0.80). These OAs represent a 13.53% and 11.7% improvement on the Sentinel-2-only (OAs < 80%) experiment for Thimalala and Edundu, respectively. The experiment also provided accurate insights into the distribution of crop and land cover types in the area. The findings suggest that in cloud-dense and resource-poor locations, fusing high temporal resolution radar data with available optical data presents an opportunity for operational mapping of crop types and land cover to support food security and environmental management decision-making.

Accurate and precise mapping of burnt areas in the fire-prone semi-arid savannah zones is relevant for making decisions on the management of environmental resources. In this study, we apply the Support Vector Machine (SVM) algorithm to freely available Sentinel-2A&B data to delineate and map burnt areas and compare our findings with conventional field surveys to enable resource managers decide on the most appropriate method to use when seeking to rapidly conduct post-fire assessment. We surveyed three burnt patches of varying sizes and compared with estimates from the SVM classification algorithm. Accuracy assessment was based on reference data collected from field surveys. We obtained an average overall accuracy of 94.8% ± 5.2% for all kernel functions in the SVM. The classification estimated the average total of the three patches at 42.99 km² but with variations among the different kernels, while the field measurements produced 42.29 km². A follow-up field survey showed that the earlier survey either over-or under-estimated the burnt patches. Our micro-level analysis demonstrates that any kernel function in the SVM algorithm can be used with freely available remote sensing data to accurately and cost-effectively map wildfire hazards, especially in resource-poor settings, for efficient decision making when managing environmental resource.

The COVID-19 pandemic had a profound impact on the livelihoods of people from diverse socio-economic backgrounds in Canada. In this study, we focus on immigrant essential workers, who played pivotal roles in sustaining Canada’s socio-economic and healthcare sectors during this crisis. Drawing data from twenty-five in-depth interviews with immigrant personal support workers, we found that immigrant personal support workers experience a complex and compounding type of stigma, traceable to their location at race, gender, class, and ethno-national lines. Using intersectionality and stigma as guiding theoretical frameworks, our study looks at the impact of stigma and labelling on personal support workers in the Windsor, Ontario, Canada, the intersectional character of such stigma, and the novel challenges introduced by the pandemic. The findings show that although some people praised personal support workers for their work on the frontlines, since others viewed them as carriers of the COVID-19 virus, certain changes had to be made to their daily routines to avoid being seen as a personal support worker. Additionally, challenges in the workplace included lack of personal protective equipment and unsafe work environments. Immigrant personal support workers were affectionately labelled ‘essential’ workers, as they were performing critical tasks at the forefront of the pandemic response. Personal support workers also found themselves in a duality of public opinion by being recognized as ‘essential’ workers, yet being simultaneously stigmatized as potential sources for the spread of COVID-19. The findings provide insights into changes that need to be made in the future toward improving immigrant personal support workers’ health and well-being in times of crises.