TY - JOUR
T1 - Linkages between biodiversity loss and human health
T2 - A global indicator analysis
AU - Huynen, M. M.T.E.
AU - Martens, P.
AU - De Groot, R. S.
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like to thank all colleagues at the International Centre for Integrative Studies (ICIS) at Maastricht University for their help in finalizing this paper; with special thanks to Kasper Kok and Dale Rothman. Furthermore, we thank Colin Soskolne and Lee Sieswerda and colleagues from other institutes and universities worldwide who have given us feedback on earlier drafts of the manuscript. This work is carried out as part of a Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award and is financially supported by the Dutch Institute of Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) within the project ‘Globalisation, Environmental Change and Public Health’. The results of this study were presented at the ‘Healthy Ecosystems, Healthy People’ conference June 6 – 11, 2002, Washington, DC, USA.
PY - 2004/2
Y1 - 2004/2
N2 - The association between health and biodiversity loss was explored by means of regression analysis on a global scale, with control for confounding by socio-economic developments. For this we selected indicators of human health (life expectancy, disability adjusted life expectancy, infant mortality rate and percentage low-birthweight babies), biodiversity (percentage threatened species, current forest as a percentage of original forest, percentage of land highly disturbed by man) and socio-economic development (health expenditure as percentage of GNP, percentage one-year olds immunized, illiteracy rate, GNP per capita and development grade) on a country level. After controlling for relevant socioeconomic confounders, both current forest as a percentage of original forest and the percentage of land highly disturbed by human activities had no relationship with one of the health indicators. The logarithm of the percentage threatened species, showed a positive association with life expectancy and disability adjusted life expectancy. The present study was not able to provide any empirical proof of a negative association between loss of biodiversity and human health at the global scale. This does not mean, however, that no such relationship exists, because there may be several reasons for our findings, like possible non-linearity of the relationship, lack of suitable indicators, non-randomness in the sample of countries and the limitations of regression analysis in proving causality.
AB - The association between health and biodiversity loss was explored by means of regression analysis on a global scale, with control for confounding by socio-economic developments. For this we selected indicators of human health (life expectancy, disability adjusted life expectancy, infant mortality rate and percentage low-birthweight babies), biodiversity (percentage threatened species, current forest as a percentage of original forest, percentage of land highly disturbed by man) and socio-economic development (health expenditure as percentage of GNP, percentage one-year olds immunized, illiteracy rate, GNP per capita and development grade) on a country level. After controlling for relevant socioeconomic confounders, both current forest as a percentage of original forest and the percentage of land highly disturbed by human activities had no relationship with one of the health indicators. The logarithm of the percentage threatened species, showed a positive association with life expectancy and disability adjusted life expectancy. The present study was not able to provide any empirical proof of a negative association between loss of biodiversity and human health at the global scale. This does not mean, however, that no such relationship exists, because there may be several reasons for our findings, like possible non-linearity of the relationship, lack of suitable indicators, non-randomness in the sample of countries and the limitations of regression analysis in proving causality.
KW - Biodiversity
KW - Ecosystem functions
KW - Human health
KW - Indicators
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0842265658&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/09603120310001633895
DO - 10.1080/09603120310001633895
M3 - Article
C2 - 14660115
AN - SCOPUS:0842265658
SN - 0960-3123
VL - 14
SP - 13
EP - 30
JO - International Journal of Environmental Health Research
JF - International Journal of Environmental Health Research
IS - 1
ER -