Climate change and human health in South Asia: systematic mapping and evidence gap map to inform research priority-setting exercise

Climate change is predicted to be the defining phenomenon of this century with substantial effect on health expected in South Asia- the most populous region in the world, where impacts of climate change are projected to be most deleterious. To inform a research priority setting(RPS) exercise in India, we aim to understand the status of empirical evidence on climate change in South Asia and health and identify research gaps.
We searched 5 electronic databases, contacted experts and screened reference lists to identify studies and categorise them into research on 1. health impacts of climate change. 2. interventions to protect health from climate change. 3. climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts which target health risks specifically or as co-benefits. 4. policy, governance, and decision-making tools. 5. adaptation or development of tools and frameworks. We developed evidence gap maps for category 1, 2 and 3 with outcomes classified into ten categories spanning the following types- environmental and sustainability, human health , and socio-economic.
We retrieved 7273 studies out of which after removing duplicates 6628 titles and abstracts were screened to identify 614 articles for full text evaluation. Full text evaluation is undergoing but the study as well as the accompanying RPS will be completed by the summit. We will present not only the results of the study but also our learnings in its use in RPS exercise to identify additional research questions as well as ratings for the RPS process which is nimble but would involve a wide group of stakeholders, including people.