Weather Variability and Climate Change Impacts on the Mental Health of a Seaside Community

Aims: To assess weather variability and climate change impacts on the mental health of a small fishing community in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Study Design: To this study, a fishing community strongly familiarized with the region was selected. Interviews were held with the most active fishermen members among the community.

Place and Duration of Study: Interviews were held in the Association of Mussel Producers and Fishermen of Cocanha’s beach (MAPEC), in the municipality of Caraguatatuba, State of Sao Paulo, Brazil, between 2009 and 2011.

Methodology: We chose 13 individuals to interview, all of them small-scale fishermen and mussel producers who were born at Cocanha beach. Their perception on the changing environment – as well as the setbacks in work activities and daily life – were codified and analyzed with NVivo 10 software. Health data were collected in a municipality level. We acquired hospital admissions for mental health and behavioral disorders from the Nacional Health System (DATASUS). We performed trend analysis (period 1998 to 2014) for rates of incidence of mental and behavioral disorders due to alcohol use, psychoactive substance use, Schizophrenia, schizotypal and delusional disorders. We also extracted social-economic data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).

Results: The results indicated that the morbidities related to mental health problems showed a significant increase in hospital admissions, and were higher than the average rate in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, and that the interviewees were aware of ongoing environmental changes such as: marine water temperature, sea water levels, beach landscaping and intensity of precipitation.

Conclusion: Environmental changes related to climate change have a strong impact on the daily lives of the interviewees, on their mental health and on use of natural resources. The perception of the communities directly using natural resources should be considered in the assessment and monitoring of climate change.