Table 1.

The main influence of major socioeconomic, demographic and environmental factors on the pathways between climate change and human health.

Aspects	Variables	Impacts
Demographic	Age	Children and the elderly (1)Health status: immature or impaired functions of the body’s physiological systems against climate change. (2)Access to essential resources: disadvantage in resource competition for medical care, food, freshwater and others.
	Sex	Women (1)Access to essential resources: disadvantage in resource competition and lower socioeconomic status. (2)Exposure to climate-related risk factors: higher exposure to indoor air pollution (e.g., black carbon) and less opportunity of escaping from floods and other natural disasters. (3)Education: poor education level and limited knowledge of self-protection from risks. (4)Physiological differences: hormones, organ size and build.
Socioeconomic	Socioeconomic and educational level	The poverty (1)Access to essential resources: less access to essential resources. (2)Education: limited knowledge of self-protection from risks. (3)Response to climate change: less awareness in mitigation and adaptation of climate change. (4)Exposure to climate-related risk factors: more outdoor work (e.g., farming, construction and mining) and higher exposure to outdoor air pollution and extreme temperatures.
	Public health policy	Inactive policy (1)Access to essential resources: insufficient resources for vulnerable populations. (2)Health promotion: poor health promotion regarding knowledge of self-protection from risks. (3)Response to climate change: passive attitude – less effectiveness of mitigation and adaptation. (4)Technology: less investment in clean energy and pollution-control technologies.
	Public attitude towards climate change	Negative attitude Response to climate change: passive attitude – less effective mitigation and adaptation.
Environmental	Land use	Unbalanced ecosystem (1)Biodiversity loss: more vector-borne diseases. (2)Insufficient resources: water and food insecurity.
	Topographic character	Certain regions (1)City: air pollution and temperature extremes (e.g., urban heat island). (2)Coastline: storm, sea-level rise, flood. (3)Plain: drought. (4)Basin: air pollution (e.g., trap pollution) and temperature extremes.