A systematized review exploring the map of publications on the health impacts of drought

Climate change is likely to increase the risk of drought which impacts on health are not quite known well due to its creeping nature. This study maps the publications on the consequences of drought on human health, directly or indirectly, from January 2008 to December 2018. We searched Scopus, Web of Science, PsycINFO, google scholar and Pubmed. 378 articles were included. Poisson regression analysis was performed to evaluate the relationship between the number of articles and some variables such as the continent of the study, article type, subject, and climate event type (climate change or just drought). Data were analyzed using Microsoft Excel 2019 and SPSS version 26. Based on the results, Asia had the highest number of publications (91) compared to North America (82), while the number of articles from South America (16) was lower significantly. The majority of articles had used quantitative analysis (175), and review articles were the second most frequent (104). Most of the articles had focused on the social impacts of drought. The number of articles has increased over the years and most of them were not in the health area primarily. Also, a noticeable amount of the knowledge comes from analysis of previously collected data and review articles. To mitigate and reduce the impacts of drought on the different dimensions of health, we need to understand them through more investigations with precise data and methods, especially in less developed countries with a more vulnerable population, and mental health consequences of drought that have been less considered.