The University of Tokyo · Environmental Science
Professor Paul Lester Chua's research lab specializes in environmental health and climate change adaptation, focusing on the impacts of climate change on human health—particularly vector-borne and heat-related diseases in tropical and urban settings. The lab conducts epidemiological and environmental health research with an emphasis on temperature and precipitation-related health outcomes, including severe diarrhoea and mortality. Their work integrates data science and public health policy to inform climate-resilient health strategies in vulnerable regions such as the Philippines. The lab also investigates the role of urban infrastructure, such as air conditioning, in mitigating climate-related health risks.
Figures are computed from collected data and may differ slightly.
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (Kakenhi) Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research.
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Japan Science and Technology Agency, and Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry, and Competitiveness.
The impacts of climate change on human health have been observed and projected in the Philippines as vector-borne and heat-related diseases have and continue to increase. As a response, the Philippine government has given priority to climate change and health as one of the main research funding topics. To guide in identifying more specific research topics, a scoping review was done to complement the agenda-setting process by mapping out the extent of climate change and health research done in th
AC has a valuable protective effect from heat despite some unavoidable mortality from anthropogenic heat release. Overall, the use of AC as a major adaptive strategy requires careful consideration.
Epidemiological studies have quantified the association between ambient temperature and diarrhoea. However, to our knowledge, no study has quantified the temperature association for severe diarrhoea cases. In this study, we quantified the association between mean temperature and two severe diarrhoea outcomes, which were mortality and hospital admissions accompanied with dehydration and/or co-morbidities. Using a 12-year dataset of three urban districts of the National Capital Region, Philippines
Associations between precipitation and diarrheal mortality exhibit variations across different climate zones. It is crucial to consider climate-specific variations when generating global projections of future precipitation-related diarrheal mortality.
This study shows that the delayed effect of heatwaves and drought conditions magnifies the risk of dengue in the SEA region. The findings highlight the need for public health interventions to mitigate the potential dengue risks posed by EWEs in the context of climate change in SEA. Future research should investigate the factors influencing variations in the EWE-dengue association across the region to support the development of tailored, location-specific mitigation and prevention strategies.
OPS 12: Morbidity effects of high and low temperatures, Room 315, Floor 3, August 28, 2019, 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM Background/Aim: Majority of the literature had investigated association of hospital admissions (HA) due to diarrheal diseases with weather, but few studies has been conducted for diarrheal deaths. To project future excess deaths of diarrhea with climate change, previous studies had utilized HA risk coefficients as proxy to diarrheal deaths. This study aimed to compare the associations
BACKGROUND AND AIM: Climate change is expected to increase in the frequency of intense tropical cyclones which could lead to more negative health outcomes. In this study, associations between tropical cyclones and diarrhea cases in countries from the Northwest Pacific basin were determined. Variations across countries and socioeconomic conditions were also analyzed. METHOD: Morbidity cases of diarrheal diseases (i.e., hospitalizations and surveillance data) were collected from China (2005–2019),
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