The Effect of an Automated Phone Warning and Health Advisory System on Adaptation to High Heat Episodes and Health Services Use in Vulnerable Groups—Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Study

Kaddour Mehiriz, Pierre Gosselin, Isabelle Tardif and Marc-André Lemieux
Additional contact information
Kaddour Mehiriz: Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, School of Public Administration and Development Economics, P.O. Box: 200592, Zone 70, Al Tarfa Street Al-Daayen, Doha, Qatar
Pierre Gosselin: Institut National de la Santé Publique and Ouranos, 945 Avenue Wolfe, Québec, QC G1V 5B3, Canada
Isabelle Tardif: Direction de Santé Publique de la Montérégie, 1255 rue Beauregard, Longueuil, QC J4K 2M3, Canada
Marc-André Lemieux: Direction de Santé Publique de la Montérégie, 1255 rue Beauregard, Longueuil, QC J4K 2M3, Canada

IJERPH, 2018, vol. 15, issue 8, 1-13

Abstract: Automated phone warning systems are increasingly used by public health authorities to protect the population from the adverse effects of extreme heat but little is known about their performance. To fill this gap, this article reports the result of a study on the impact of an automated phone heat warning system on adaptation behaviours and health services use. A sample of 1328 individuals vulnerable to heat was constituted for this purpose and participants were randomly assigned to treatment and control groups. The day before a heat episode, a phone heat warning was sent to the treatment group. Data were obtained through two surveys before and one survey after the heat warning issuance. The results show that members of the treatment group were more aware of how to protect themselves from heat and more likely to adopt the recommended behaviours. Moreover, a much smaller proportion of women in this group used the health-care system compared to the control group. Thus, the exposure to an automated phone warning seems to improve the adaptation to heat and reduce the use of health services by some important at-risk groups. This method can thus be used to complement public health interventions aimed at reducing heat-related health risks.

Keywords: automated phone warning systems; heat waves warnings; public health; impact evaluation; randomized controlled trial design; climate change adaptation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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