A systematic review of the health impacts of mass earth movements (landslides)

PLOS Currents Disasters, 2015 Apr 30 , Edition 1. doi: 10.1371/currents.dis.1d49e84c8bbe678b0e70cf7fc35d0b77.

This document is the first of its kind that reviews how mass ground movements, commonly referred to as ‘landslides’, as common natural hazards can have significant economic, social and health impacts. Landslides are described as occurring as single events, or as clusters, which are often part of ‘disaster’ chains, occurring secondary to, or acting as the precursor of other disaster events.

The MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, SCOPUS databases and the Cochrane library were systematically searched to identify articles which considered the health impacts of landslides. Case studies, case series, primary research and systematic reviews were included. Whilst there is a large body of literature on the engineering and geological aspects of landslides, the mortality and morbidity caused by landslides is less well documented.