OBJECTIVE: To assess the epidemiological evidence on the joint effects of climate variability and socio-ecological factors on dengue transmission.
METHODS: Following PRISMA guidelines, a detailed literature search was conducted in PubMed, Web of Science and Scopus. Peer-reviewed, freely available and full text articles, considering both climate and socio-ecological factors in relation to dengue, published in English from January 1993 to October 2015 were included in this review.
RESULTS: 20 studies have met the inclusion criteria and assessed the impact of both climatic and socio-ecological factors on dengue dynamics. Among those, four studies have further investigated the relative importance of climate variability and socio-ecological factors on dengue transmission. A few studies also developed predictive models including both climatic and socio-ecological factors.
CONCLUSIONS: Due to insufficient data, methodological issues, and contextual variability of the studies it is hard to draw conclusion on the joint effects of climate variability and socio-ecological factors on dengue transmission. Future research should take into account socio-ecological factors in combination with climate variables for a better understanding of the complex nature of dengue transmission as well as for improving the predictive capability of dengue forecasting models, to develop effective and reliable early warning systems.
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