Abstract

Tropical cyclones bring health risks and can trigger outbreaks of diarrheal diseases in affected populations. There are several reviews that mention the relationship between tropical cyclones and diarrheal diseases. However, there is no dedicated review of the current evidence and extent of research on the association between tropical cyclones and diarrheal diseases. We performed a scoping review to thoroughly examine the available literature. We also thematically analyzed the transmission pathways explained in the literature. A total of 96 studies were included. Twenty-three studies quantitatively measured the tropical cyclone--diarrhea associations, with half reporting positive associations. We found that the studies defined and measured tropical cyclone exposure differently and mostly analyzed a single event. The study designs employed were mostly pre-post comparisons that had several limitations affecting internal validity. These differences also prevent the quantitative pooling of evidence. A standardized approach to measuring the association between tropical cyclones and diarrheal diseases can be devised by suggesting the most appropriate exposure definition and modeling.