Awareness of and Attitudes towards Heat Waves within the Context of Climate Change among a Cohort of Residents in Adelaide, Australia

Derick A. Akompab, Peng Bi, Susan Williams, Janet Grant, Iain A. Walker and Martha Augoustinos
Additional contact information
Derick A. Akompab: Discipline of Public Health, School of Population Health, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide 5005, Australia
Peng Bi: Discipline of Public Health, School of Population Health, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide 5005, Australia
Susan Williams: Discipline of Public Health, School of Population Health, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide 5005, Australia
Janet Grant: Population Research & Outcome Studies, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide 5005, Australia
Iain A. Walker: Climate Adaptation Flagship, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, CSIRO, Perth 6151, Australia
Martha Augoustinos: School of Psychology, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide 5005, Australia

IJERPH, 2012, vol. 10, issue 1, 1-17

Abstract: Heat waves are a public health concern in Australia and unprecedented heat waves have been recorded in Adelaide over recent years. The aim of this study was to examine the perception and attitudes towards heat waves in the context of climate change among a group of residents in Adelaide, an Australian city with a temperate climate. A cross-sectional study was conducted in the summer of 2012 among a sample of 267 residents. The results of the survey found that television (89.9%), radio (71.2%), newspapers (45.3%) were the main sources from which respondents received information about heat waves. The majority of the respondents (73.0%) followed news about heat waves very or somewhat closely. About 26.6% of the respondents were extremely or very concerned about the effects of heat waves on them personally. The main issues that were of personal concern for respondents during a heat wave were their personal comfort (60.7%), their garden (48.7%), and sleeping well (47.6%). Overall, respondents were more concerned about the impacts of heat waves to the society than on themselves. There was a significant association between gender (?² = 21.2, df = 3, p = 0.000), gross annual household income ( p = 0.03) and concern for the societal effects of heat waves. Less than half (43.2%) of the respondents believed that heat waves will extremely or very likely increase in Adelaide according to climate projections. Nearly half (49.3%) believed that the effects of heat waves were already being felt in Adelaide. These findings may inform the reframing and communication strategies for heat waves in Adelaide in the context of climate change.

Keywords: climate change; heat waves; human health; attitudes; survey; Australia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/10/1/1/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/10/1/1/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:10:y:2012:i:1:p:1-17:d:22347

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().