Climate risk or healthcare investment? Explaining oral health outcomes across European Union member states
4 affiliations
- 1Department of Oral Pathology, Multidisciplinary Center for Research, Evaluation, Diagnosis and Therapies in Oral Medicine, “Victor Babes” University of Medicine and Pharmacy Timisoara , ,
- 2Department of Organization, Professional Legislation and Management of the Dental Office, Faculty of Dental Medicine, “Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy , ,
- 3Finance, Business Information Systems and Modeling Department, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, West University of Timisoara , ,
- 4Department of Pediatric Dentistry, Faculty of Dental Medicine, “Victor Babes”, University of Medicine and Pharmacy Timisoara , ,
Abstract
Introduction: Climate change is a major public-health concern, but short-term population-level evidence linking annual climate variability to oral-health outcomes remains limited. This study evaluates within-country associations between temperature, extreme heat days, and three oral-health indicators across EU member states.
Methods: A longitudinal ecological panel analysis was conducted for the 27 EU member states from 2016 to 2023. Daily temperatures at each country centroid were obtained from the Open-Meteo Historical Weather API and aggregated to annual mean temperature and days with maximum temperature above 30 °C. Outcomes were GBD 2023 carries and periodontal prevalence and Eurostat unmet dental care. Two-way fixed-effects models used country-clustered finite-sample-corrected standard errors and 999-replication wild-cluster bootstrap p -values.
Results: Neither mean annual temperature nor extreme heat days were associated with any outcome in the two-way fixed-effects models. Within R-squared values were 0.056 for caries, 0.032 for periodontal disease, and 0.044 for unmet dental care. Wild-cluster bootstrap inference confirmed the absence of associations at the 5% level. Quadratic temperature terms and climate-by-expenditure interactions were also non-significant.
Conclusion: Over the eight-year study period, short-term within-country variation in the reconstructed climate indicators was not associated with the examined oral-health outcomes. Nonlinear and expenditure-interaction models were also null. Longer panels, spatially resolved exposure measures, and oral-health-specific financing, coverage, and utilization indicators are needed.
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BibTeX
@article{lupita2026climate,
title = {{Climate risk or healthcare investment? Explaining oral health outcomes across European Union member states}},
author = {Cassandra Lupita and Anca-Cristina Perpelea and Laura-Cristina Rusu and Iulia Muntean and Edida Maghet and Oana Ramona Lobonț and Magda-Mihaela Luca},
journal = {Frontiers in public health},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.3389/fpubh.2026.1939057},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13661443},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Climate risk or healthcare investment? Explaining oral health outcomes across European Union member states
AU - Cassandra Lupita
AU - Anca-Cristina Perpelea
AU - Laura-Cristina Rusu
AU - Iulia Muntean
AU - Edida Maghet
AU - Oana Ramona Lobonț
AU - Magda-Mihaela Luca
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/30
JO - Frontiers in public health
DO - 10.3389/fpubh.2026.1939057
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13661443
AB - Introduction: Climate change is a major public-health concern, but short-term population-level evidence linking annual climate variability to oral-health outcomes remains limited. This study evaluates within-country associations between temperature, extreme heat days, and three oral-health indicators across EU member states. Methods: A longitudinal ecological panel analysis was conducted for the 27 EU member states from 2016 to 2023. Daily temperatures at each country centroid were obtained from the Open-Meteo Historical Weather API and aggregated to annual mean temperature and days with maximum temperature above 30 °C. Outcomes were GBD 2023 carries and periodontal prevalence and Eurostat unmet dental care. Two-way fixed-effects models used country-clustered finite-sample-corrected standard errors and 999-replication wild-cluster bootstrap p -values. Results: Neither mean annual temperature nor extreme heat days were associated with any outcome in the two-way fixed-effects models. Within R-squared values were 0.056 for caries, 0.032 for periodontal disease, and 0.044 for unmet dental care. Wild-cluster bootstrap inference confirmed the absence of associations at the 5% level. Quadratic temperature terms and climate-by-expenditure interactions were also non-significant. Conclusion: Over the eight-year study period, short-term within-country variation in the reconstructed climate indicators was not associated with the examined oral-health outcomes. Nonlinear and expenditure-interaction models were also null. Longer panels, spatially resolved exposure measures, and oral-health-specific financing, coverage, and utilization indicators are needed.
SN - 2296-2565
ER -