Introduction: In the last decade the case of Extreme Heat Weather Events (EHWE’s) gained considerable relevance, mainly due to the challenges it poses to citizen’s, health authorities, and policy makers (WHO, 2015). Better understanding of citizens’ adaptation and mitigation strategies to EHWE’s is needed. Thus, we developed two studies aimed at identifying the beliefs that citizens and first line responders (e.g. firefighters) have about EHWE’s, focusing on the demands posed by such events, and the individual and social resources available to cope with the demands.
Method: Both studies follow the Biopsychosocial Model of Challenge and Threat (BPS-Model; e.g. Blascovich, 2008) and the Mental Models Approach (e.g. Bruine de Bruin & Bostrom, 2013).In the first study, a semi-structured interview aimed at exploring demands and coping resources about EHWE’s was applied to 159 Portuguese citizens with ages between 18 and 88 years (M = 41.86; SD = 25.49). In the second study a similar semi-structured interview protocol was applied to a sample of 119 Portuguese first line responders with ages between 18 and 67 years (M = 37; SD = 11.10). The categorization process followed theory and data driven content analysis approaches.
Results: Results suggest several similarities in the beliefs expressed by both citizens and first line responders. Not only a similar pattern in expressed demands and resources was found between both, but more importantly, a set of shared misconceptions was identified (e.g. confound between heat exposure/protection and solar exposure/protection). Both expressed demands of “Danger” followed by “Effort” and “Uncertainty”, and resources associated with “Knowledge and Skills”, followed by “Support” and “Dispositions”. These results will be expanded and presented in further detail, and its implication for promoting human adaptation and resilience to EHWE’s discussed.
Discussion: With this we want to contribute not only for the understanding of human adaptation and mitigation strategies to EHWE’s, but also identify knowledge gaps and possible misconceptions in both lay people and first line responders. By knowing the characteristics of those beliefs, we can promote and develop evidence-based strategies, interventions, and communications aimed at mitigating the risks of EHWE’s for the population and promote their adaptation.