Knowledge, Awareness, Practices, and Perceptions of Risk and Responsibility Related to Extreme Heat:: An Exploratory Survey of Older Adults in Canada.

Objectives: Knowledge and risk perception are driving factors for initiating appropriate health-protective actions during extreme heat events (EHEs). We sought to examine the (1) current knowledge of heat as a health threat, (2) perception of personal vulnerability to heat, (3) role of heat warnings and heat alert and response systems in initiating heat mitigating practices, and (4) opinions of community preparedness among heat-vulnerable older adults, as well as explore factors that may influence these concepts.

Design: Cross-sectional survey.

Setting: Canada.

Participants: Individuals aged 50 years or older.

Main outcome measures: The number of respondents and percentage of the total sample were calculated based on individual response rates to each question. To explore factors that may have influenced the respondents' understanding of heat health knowledge, awareness, and risk perception, a bootstrapped least absolute shrinkage and selection operator regression was conducted.

Results: 1027 respondents (69% female, median age: 68 years) from 10 provinces/territories. Most felt knowledgeable about heat stress (74%), but many indicated that greater effort is needed to increase public awareness of EHE (64%). Self-reported responsiveness to heat alerts was also high (88%) despite many respondents reporting a low level of self-perceived risk (66%) and characteristics of heat susceptibility (eg, age, comorbidities).

Conclusions: In our sample of older Canadians, various factors influenced knowledge, perceived heat vulnerability, responsiveness to heat alerts, and perception of community preparedness. These findings can help inform public heat preparedness initiatives to ensure they align with the needs of older Canadians.