Effects of Desert Dust and Sandstorms on Human Health : A Scoping Review
Lwin, Kaung Suu (The University of Tokyo)
Tobías, Aurelio (Nagasaki University)
Chua, Paul Lester (The University of Tokyo)
Yuan, Lei (The University of Tokyo)
Thawonmas, Ramita (The University of Tokyo)
Ith, Sophearen (The University of Tokyo)
Htay, Zin Wai (The University of Tokyo)
Yu, Lin Szu (The University of Tokyo)
Yamasaki, Lisa (Nagasaki University)
Roqué i Figuls, Marta (Institut d'Investigació Biomèdica Sant Pau)
Querol Carceller, Xavier (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (Espanya))
Fussell, Julia C. (Imperial College London)
Nadeau, Kari Christine (Stanford University)
Stafoggia, Massimo (Lazio Region Health Service)
Saliba, Najat A. (American University of Beirut)
Sheng Ng, Chris Fook (The University of Tokyo)
Hashizume, Masahiro (The University of Tokyo)
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

Date:	2023
Abstract:	Desert dust and sandstorms are recurring environmental phenomena that are reported to produce serious health risks worldwide. This scoping review was conducted to identify the most likely health effects of desert dust and sandstorms and the methods used to characterize desert dust exposure from the existing epidemiological literature. We systematically searched PubMed/MEDLINE, Web of Science, and Scopus to identify studies that reported the effects of desert dust and sandstorms on human health. Search terms referred to desert dust or sandstorm exposure, names of major deserts, and health outcomes. Health effects were cross-tabulated with study design variables (e. g. , epidemiological design and methods to quantify dust exposure), desert dust source, health outcomes and conditions. We identified 204 studies that met the inclusion criteria for the scoping review. More than half of the studies (52. 9%) used a time-series study design. However, we found a substantial variation in the methods used to identify and quantify desert dust exposure. The binary metric of dust exposure was more frequently used than the continuous metric for all desert dust source locations. Most studies (84. 8%) reported significant associations between desert dust and adverse health effects, mainly for respiratory and cardiovascular mortality and morbidity causes. Although there is a large body of evidence on the health effects of desert dust and sandstorms, the existing epidemiological studies have significant limitations related to exposure measurement and statistical analysis that potentially contribute to inconsistencies in determining the effect of desert dust on human health.
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article de revisió ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Desert dust ; Epidemiology ; Health ; Sandstorm ; Scoping review
Published in:	Geohealth, Vol. 7 Núm. 3 (march 2023) , p. e2022GH000728, ISSN 2471-1403

DOI: 10.1029/2022GH000728
PMID: 36874170

11 p, 839.6 KB

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