By Hugo Francisco de SouzaMay 10 2024Reviewed by Susha Cheriyedath, M.Sc. In a recent meta-analysis published in the journal Nature, researchers collate, analyze, and discuss the results from over 2,938 published observations to elucidate the global change drivers contributing highest to global surges in infectious diseases, both amongst humans and other non-human organisms.
The impacts of anthropogenic changes on global health A crowning glory of modern human society includes the advances in healthcare and disease management. Unfortunately, reports and scientific publications reveal that emergent infectious disease prevalence is rising at an alarming rate both in human and non-human host-parasite interactions.
Studies were included irrespective of publication type , or language as long as the work was peer-reviewed and drew concise conclusions on the impacts of the global change driver of interest on a pathogen/parasite. Data collection involved extracting any global change disease endpoint metrics , defining the subcategory of the global change driver, the relevant host and pathogen species, and any other quantified host or pathogen traits.
“We first estimated the overall grand mean and the total heterogeneity explained by the random effect terms. Second, to test for the effects of broad global change drivers on disease, we conducted a meta-analytical model with global change driver as the moderator. Third, to test whether global change driver subfactors differentially affect disease, we conducted a meta-analytical model with the subfactors of global change drivers as the moderator.
The results of this meta-analysis highlight biodiversity losses, chemical pollution, climate change, and invasive/introduced species as the most important determinants of rising global disease risk. These findings were found to be consistent across both human and non-human host-parasite diseases, albeit in a highly context-dependent manner.