Living conditions and mental wellness in a changing climate and environment:focus on community voices and perceived environmental and adaptation factors in Greenland
Background: Climate change is a major global challenge, especially for Indigenous communities. It can have extensive impacts on peoples’ lives that may occur through the living environment, health and mental well-being, and which are requiring constant adaptation. Objectives: The overall purpose of...
| Published in: | Heliyon |
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2021
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://orbit.dtu.dk/en/publications/ff3c3922-9651-4281-a5d8-80beb6c4387e https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e06862 https://backend.orbit.dtu.dk/ws/files/262638123/1_s2.0_S2405844021009658_main.pdf |
| Summary: | Background: Climate change is a major global challenge, especially for Indigenous communities. It can have extensive impacts on peoples’ lives that may occur through the living environment, health and mental well-being, and which are requiring constant adaptation. Objectives: The overall purpose of this research was to evaluate the impacts of climate change and permafrost thaw on mental wellness in Disko Bay, Greenland. It contained two parts: multidisciplinary fieldwork and a questionnaire survey. The aim of the fieldwork was to learn about life and living conditions and to understand what it is like to live in a community that faces impacts of climate change and permafrost thaw. For the questionnaire the aim was to find out which perceived environmental and adaptation factors relate to very good self-rated well-being, quality of life and satisfaction with life. Analysis: Fieldwork data was analyzed by following a thematic analysis, and questionnaire data statistically by cross-tabulation. First, the associations between perceived environmental and adaptation factors were studied either by the Pearson χ 2 test or by Fisher's exact test. Second, binary logistic regression analysis was applied to examine more in depth the associations between perceived environmental/adaptation variables and self-rated very good well-being, satisfaction with life and quality of life. The binary logistic regression analysis was conducted in two phases: as univariate and multivariate analyses. Results: Nature and different activities in nature were found to be important to local people, and results suggest that they increase mental wellness, specifically well-being and satisfaction with life. Challenges associated with permafrost thaw, such as changes in the physical environment, infrastructure and impacts on culture were recognized in everyday life. Conclusions: The results offer relevant information for further plans and actions in this field of research and at the policy level. Our study shows the importance of multidisciplinary ... |
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