Climate Change and Health: Effect of Awareness Program on Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices of Community Dwelling Elderly

Abstract

Background: Climate change is the biggest global health threat of the 21 st century with both direct and indirect effects on human health especially for vulnerable groups as elderly. So, it's important to raise their awareness about climate change to reduce its adverse effect on health. Aim : To evaluate the effect of awareness program on knowledge, attitudes and practices of community dwelling elderly regarding climate change and health. Method: A quasi-experimental, pre and post intervention research design was implemented. A convenience sample of 72 community dwelling elderly attending El-Amal elderly club in Mansoura city. Tools : Five tools were used for data collection; Demographic and Health profile structured interview sheet, Climate change knowledge questionnaire, Elderly's attitude toward climate change self-rating scale, Elderly's self-reported practices about their adaption towards climate change checklist and Elderly's awareness level about climate change and its effect of health questionnaire . Results: There were significant improvement in elderly's total mean score of knowledge, practices, attitudes and awareness after 3 months from implementation of the awareness program than before (P=0.000**). Also, a statistically significant strong positive correlation was found between the total knowledge score of the studied elderly and both total practices scores, total attitudes scores and total awareness score after implementation of the awareness program Conclusion: The awareness program improved knowledge, attitudes and practices of community dwelling elderly about climate change and health. Recommendations: Dissemination of developed illustrated awareness program booklet about climate change and health to all elderly at Mansoura City should be done.