Climate-related exposures were associated with respiratory illness in Southeast Asia
A regional review linked pollution, heat, humidity and extreme weather with respiratory outcomes, while highlighting uneven exposure and major gaps in geographic coverage.
Based on the published abstract. The full paper may contain additional methods, results and limitations.
The 30-second takeaway
The review found associations between climate-related factors and respiratory health outcomes across Southeast Asia. Children, older people, low-income communities and outdoor workers were identified as more vulnerable. The abstract provides neither effect sizes nor enough detail to show how much risk varied across exposures and countries. These associations alone do not establish causation.
Evidence was concentrated in a few countries, with sparse research elsewhere in the region. This abstract-based summary cannot assess individual study quality, exposure definitions or how the studies addressed alternative explanations.
What the review brought together
The researchers searched several databases for recent studies of climate factors and respiratory disease. The abstract describes an overall association, without identifying the respiratory diagnoses or giving separate estimates for pollution, temperature, humidity and extreme weather.
Uneven coverage matters
Most included research came from Vietnam, Singapore and Indonesia; evidence from Brunei, Myanmar and the Philippines was sparse. The review generally found little evidence of gender differences, though some settings showed small differences.
The original publication
Systematic review of respiratory diseases attributed to climate change in Southeast Asia.
Shamrin FSM, Lee SHF, Rahman HA
Int J Biometeorol · 2026
- PubMed ID
- 41784648
- Record checked
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