Perceptions of Weather Risks and Climate Beliefs Among the Hong Kong General Public

NCT04919148 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: UW 19-093
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 429
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Background: Local abnormal heat events may be used as proxies for communicating the health impacts of climate change when people physically feel the effects to reduce the psychological distance of climate change and improve public engagement with climate and weather risk. However, there are concerns that this strategy may be more effective for climate believers, and that it may somewhat compromise the scientific precision because it may lead to erroneous beliefs that climate change is merely characterized by temperature rises or extreme heat but ignore other extreme weather events such as flood and extreme cold, and that cold spells are interpreted as evidence of no climate change. None of these potential effects and concerns has been tested. Aims: This proposed study is aimed to explore patterns of climate beliefs and their influences on perceptions of heat-related risks and responses to heat health warnings in the general public of Hong Kong; (2) Test the preliminary effects of a revised heat health warning (RHHW) that incorporates information about the health impacts of climate change into existing heat health warning on perceived heat-related risk and climate beliefs. Design and subjects: This will be a mix-methods study comprising in-depth qualitative interviews, a population-based cohort survey and a pilot randomized control trial (RCT). Subjects will be the general Hong Kong Chinese adults aged ≥18 years. Main outcome measures: Latent class analysis will be conducted to examine patterns of climate beliefs while structural equation modelling to test the relationships among climate beliefs, perceived heat-related risks and behavioural responses to heat warnings. Qualitative data will be analysed using thematic content analysis while the effect of RHHW will be tested using t-test and linear regression models.

Conditions

Weather Risk Perception

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (4)

• Emotional engagement with heat and climate change risk (emotional valence)

  Measure participants' emotional engagement with risk of heat stress and climate change, in specific, participants will be asked to indicate how they feel about the health impacts of climate change (using a slider from -3 to 3). Higher scores indicate more positive emotion.

  One week after completion of all messages delivery

• Emotional engagement with heat and climate change risk (discrete emotion)

  Participants will be asked how much they feel fear/helpless/worried/disgust when thinking about health impacts of climate change (on a 7-point Likert scale). Higher scores indicate stronger emotion arousal.

  One week after completion of all messages delivery

• Short-term effect of risk perception toward heat and climate change risk

  Their perceived health risk toward climate change and heat stress will be measured using items derived from our baseline and follow-up surveys (likelihood, severity and perceived worry will be used to gauge participants' risk perception). All measures on a 5-point likert scale with higher scores indicating greater risk perception.

  One week after completion of all messages delivery

• Long-term effect of risk perception toward heat and climate change

  Their perceived health risk toward climate change and heat stress will be measured using items derived from our baseline and follow-up surveys (likelihood, severity and perceived worry will be used to gauge participants' risk perception). All measures on a 5-point likert scale with higher scores indicating greater risk perception.

  One month after completion of all messages delivery

Secondary Outcomes (4)

• Short-term effect of self-efficacy in taking pro-environment actions

  One week after completion of all messages delivery

• Long-term effect of self-efficacy in taking pro-environment actions

  One month after completion of all messages delivery

• Short-term effect of intention in taking pro-environment actions

  One week after completion of all messages delivery

• Long-term effect of intention in taking pro-environment actions

  One month after completion of all messages delivery

Study Arms (2)

Participants receive control message

NO INTERVENTION

Participants only receive standard heat risk warning

Participants receive intervention message

EXPERIMENTAL

Participants receive standard heat risk warning plus figures incorporating the health impacts of heat and pro-environment behaviors.

Behavioral: Heat risk and pro-environment behavior message

Interventions

Heat risk and pro-environment behavior message BEHAVIORAL

Eligible participants will be randomized to either a control condition to receive a standardized heat health warning or an intervention condition to receive a heat health warning plus figures depicting heat risk and pro-environment behavior via their preferred and accessible channel (WhatsApp, WeChat or the text message) each time when a Very Hot Weather Warning is issued by the Hong Kong Observatory.

Participants receive intervention message

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• Participants should own a mobile phone and be able to read Chinese.

You may not qualify if:

• Participants with no mobile phone or cannot understand Chinese will be excluded.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• The University of Hong Kong: lead

Study Sites (1)

University of Hong Kong School of Public Health

Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Location

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: SINGLE
• Who Masked: OUTCOMES ASSESSOR
• Purpose: HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Assistant Professor

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: May 28, 2021
• First Posted: June 9, 2021
• Study Start: July 28, 2020
• Primary Completion: August 30, 2021
• Study Completion: August 30, 2021
• Last Updated: May 19, 2022

Record last verified: 2022-05

Locations

HK (1)