Climate Change, Social Well-Being and Disease Pattern in Urban Nigeria

Yemi Adewoyin, University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN)
Thompson A. Adeboyejo, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology

As most disease eradication drives dwell more on controlling the proximal causes of diseases, this study investigates the impact of climatic parameters and the population’s social well-being on disease prevalence on the premise that these conditions promote the preponderance of the proximal causes. Data on rainfall and temperature, socioeconomic indices and malaria prevalence were analyzed using Standard Deviation, Kurtosis, Pearson Product Moment Correlation and Multiple Regression. The results show an increase in malaria prevalence while changes in the climatic parameters and socioeconomic conditions accounted for 78.6% of the variations in malaria prevalence (R2 = 0.786, P = 0.001). The regression equation was used to project the incidence of malaria in the study area from 310 cases per 1,000 Population in 2016 to 366 cases per 1,000 Population in 2050. Greater attention should be paid to improving the socioeconomic conditions of the population for improved urban health.