SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Clim.
Sec. Climate and Health
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fclim.2025.1594793
This article is part of the Research TopicClimate Change and Human Health: Transdisciplinary PerspectivesView all 9 articles
Recent trends in research on the health impacts of climate change in the Philippines (2018-2023): A scoping review
Provisionally accepted
Clarissa De Guzman1
Megan Lorenza Cabaero1
Jude Raphael Lo1Jimmy Loro2
Maria Vinna Crisostomo1
Michelle Ylade1
Kristal An Agrupis1*- 1Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, University of the Philippines-Manila, Manila, Philippines
- 2Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, Makati, Philippines
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Climate change poses significant health risks globally, particularly in vulnerable countries like the Philippines. This scoping review examines recent research trends (2018-2023) on the health impacts of climate change in the Philippines, building on previous national reviews and situating findings within global evidence. We screened 8,346 articles from various databases and identified 69 studies meeting inclusion criteria. Using a framework-guided thematic synthesis, studies were categorized into 6 themes: vulnerability to disease and injury, direct health impacts of climate and weather, ecosystem-mediated impacts, health impacts mediated through human institutions, adaptation strategies, and co-benefits of mitigation measures. Results reveal a significant increase in climate-health research compared to a previous review (1980-2017), with notable growth in studies in mental health, gender-based vulnerabilities, and adaptation measures. However, research remains geographically concentrated in Luzon, highlighting regional disparities, and few studies utilized long-term climate-health datasets. Studies quantifying the health co-benefits of mitigation measures also remain limited. This review demonstrates significant progress while identifying persistent gaps. Future research should prioritize long-term surveillance, local adaptation evaluations and health-economic co-benefits studies to strengthen climate-health data integration, improve climate information services and develop equity-oriented, policy-relevant research agenda.
Keywords: Climate Change, Health, Philippines, Scoping review, research agenda-setting
Received: 17 Mar 2025; Accepted: 18 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 De Guzman, Cabaero, Lo, Loro, Crisostomo, Ylade and Agrupis. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Kristal An Agrupis, Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, University of the Philippines-Manila, Manila, Philippines
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