Previously submitted to: Online Journal of Public Health Informatics (no longer under consideration since Jun 12, 2026)
Date Submitted: Jun 29, 2025
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Building Resilience and Tracking Environmental Impacts on Health through Digital Health Data: Opportunities, Challenges, and Strategies
ABSTRACT
Background:
Climate change progressively endangering human health, particularly in areas such as Saudi Arabia, where extreme hot weather, air pollution, and weather changeability are prevalent. Integrating environmental data with digital health systems offers a promising approach to improve surveillance, awareness, and health system resilience.
Objective:
THis study aims to investigate insights, practices, and recommendations related to the integration of digital health data with environmental health monitoring
Methods:
A cross-sectional survey was conducted among (227) participants, together with healthcare experts, academic researchers, policy-makers, and environmental experts across Saudi Arabia. The survey explored awareness of digital and environmental health data, up-to-date practices, system readiness, and support for integration.
Results:
While 85% of respondents acknowledged the importance of integrating environmental and health data, only 25.6% reported using such systems in practice. Observations of system readiness were low, with just 17.2% considering the health system ready for integration. Occupation significantly predisposed insights of readiness (χ² (6) = 14.41, p = 0.025). Familiarity with digital systems and awareness of environmental health data were both strong interpreters of support for integration (p < 0.01).
Conclusions:
The findings show widespread support for incorporating environmental data into digital health systems, notwithstanding concerns about readiness and infrastructure. Addressing interoperability difficulties and investing in digital capability are significant ways to increase health system resilience in the face of environmental change.
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