Assessing climate change’s impact on cardiopulmonary health in the Canton of Valais: a pilot study protocol

Background: Climate change is a challenge for health and humanity. In Switzerland, the canton of Valais is considered one of the driest regions in the Alps. Its air pollution can reach high levels; temperatures reach extremes of cold and heat. These climatic changes are harming the population’s health and well-being. According to the Swiss Health Observatory, the emergency departments of Switzerland’s 100 largest hospitals treated 1.722million cases in 2016, equivalent to 4,718 admissions daily. In Valais, 75,000 patients consulted at Sion’s emergency department in 2022. Objective: This pilot study aims to estimate climate change’s impact on the cardiopulmonary comorbidities of Valais’ population and explore adult patients’ knowledge of climate change’s consequences for their health. The study’s findings will inform planning and facilitate estimations of how the care for adult patients presenting at Sion’s emergency department needs to adapt and improve, and what changes must be made in the domains of health promotion and disease prevention. The feasibility and acceptability of the patient selection and data collection processes will also be explored. Methods: The pilot study will use a convergent parallel mixed-methods design. Data collection will occur over a year, from 21 September 2024 to 20 September 2025. Descriptive statistics of the quantitive phase will be calculated, and the qualitative phase will undergo a thematic analysis. Results: The 12-month recruitment period is expected to provide a sample of at least 60 patients. We will explore the process of recruiting patients to the study, the reasons for their consultation at Sion’s emergency department, their triage level, their sociodemographic profile, and their knowledge about climate change and its potential links to their emergency department visit. Conclusions: The pilot study’s results will enable us to test the feasibility of the methods and procedures needed for a larger study and to search for the effects of potential associations between specific changes to the characteristics of Valais’ microclimate and its population’s health. Associations will enable us to establish typical profiles of the adult patients who consult at Sion’s emergency department. The qualitative phase’s results will help to reveal and explore those patients’ personally and socially determined perceptions, experiences, knowledge and feelings about climate change. Clinical Trial: 2024-00900