Intercultural Dialogue in Climate Change and Health: Bridging Patients and Health Professionals in a Changing Climate

Climate change is increasingly recognized as one of the defining public health challenges of the 21st century. Rising temperatures, extreme weather events, environmental degradation, and changing ecosystems are already influencing patterns of disease, air quality, food systems, and mental wellbeing. These transformations are not experienced uniformly. Their impacts are shaped by social conditions, cultural values, and the ways in which communities interpret environmental change and health risks. Healthcare settings are therefore becoming important spaces where global environmental change intersects with everyday experiences of health and illness. Patients increasingly bring concerns related to climate, environment, and uncertainty about the future into clinical encounters. At the same time, healthcare professionals are being called upon to interpret and communicate complex environmental health risks within limited consultation time and across diverse cultural contexts. Despite the growing recognition of climate-sensitive health challenges, relatively little research has explored how climate-related health concerns are discussed, interpreted, and negotiated between patients and healthcare professionals. Understanding these interactions is essential for developing healthcare responses that are both scientifically informed and culturally responsive.This Research Topic aims to explore how intercultural dialogue between patients and health professionals shapes the understanding and communication of climate-related health risks. As environmental change increasingly enters healthcare conversations, the ability of professionals to engage with patients’ cultural perspectives, environmental experiences, and emotional responses becomes a critical dimension of care. The goal of this collection is to bring together transdisciplinary research that examines how climate change and health are communicated within clinical and community settings, and how these interactions influence trust, health literacy, and patient engagement. By highlighting diverse cultural perspectives and communication practices, the Research Topic seeks to identify approaches that strengthen dialogue between patients and professionals and support more inclusive and responsive healthcare in the context of environmental change.This Research Topic invites interdisciplinary contributions that examine how climate change and health are discussed, interpreted, and addressed through interactions between healthcare professionals and patients across different cultural contexts. We welcome submissions that investigate topics such as: - Intercultural communication in clinical encounters involving climate-related health concerns- The role of health literacy in understanding environmental and climate-related risks- Communication strategies for addressing climate anxiety and environmental distress- Cultural perspectives on environmental change and their implications for healthcare practice; Integrating indigenous knowledge and local environmental experience into health communication- Training healthcare professionals for culturally responsive climate-health communication- Community engagement and participatory approaches to climate-health dialogue- Health system initiatives that support communication about climate-related health risksThe collection welcomes original research articles, systematic reviews, conceptual papers, policy analyses, perspectives, and community-based studies that contribute to advancing knowledge on intercultural communication and healthcare practice in the context of climate change. Topic editors: Diogo Guedes Vidal, Marina Kovaleva, Franziska Wolf, Fátima Alves Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/79332/intercultural-dialogue-in-climate-change-and-health-bridging-patients-and-health-professionals-in-a-changing-climate