How resilient is the general population to heatwaves? A knowledge survey from the ENHANCE project in Brussels and Amsterdam

Table 2 Characteristics of respondents, their knowledge on risk groups and protective measures for heat-related health effects and their opinion on government activities

	Brussels	Amsterdam	Difference^a
	N = 120	N = 133	p value
Demographics of respondents
Male gender %	46.7	49.6	0.642
Average age in years (sd)	45.5 (18.1)	43.5 (19.6)	0.399
Education %^b			0.515
Lower	20.0	19.1
Medium	19.2	25.2
Higher	60.8	55.7
Knowledge of respondents
Familiarity with existence of the heat plan %			0.314
Yes	39.2	33.1
No	60.8	66.9
Familiarity with risk groups for heat %^c
Elderly	87.5	69.2	<0.001
Young children/babies	64.2	43.6	0.001
Sick individuals/patients	35.0	36.1	0.856
Socially isolated individuals	9.2	0.0	<0.001
Pregnant women	4.2	3.8	0.868
Obese individuals	2.5	6.8	0.111
Individuals who perform a lot of physical effort	0.8	1.5	0.623
Don’t know/only non-formal risk group	10.0	24.8	0.002
Familiarity with protective measures for heat %^c
Drink fluids	80.8	59.4	<0.001
Avoid heat/sun^d	58.3	64.7	0.301
Adjust clothing^e	28.3	36.1	0.188
Cool the body^f	22.5	18.8	0.467
Use fan or airconditioning	18.3	24.8	0.212
Keep windows closed	16.7	6.8	0.014
Avoid physical activity	11.7	15.0	0.432
Adjust diet	9.2	8.3	0.801
Visit green areas	8.3	1.5	0.011
Use sunscreen	6.7	25.6	<0.001
Don’t know	1.7	0.0
Opinion of respondents
Sensitive to heat %			<0.001
Very much	31.7	12.0
Somewhat	13.3	27.8
Not at all	54.2	59.4
Don’t know	0.8	0.8
Sufficient awareness by government %			<0.001
Too little	46.7	28.6
Just enough	38.3	31.6
Too much	2.5	3.8
Don’t know	12.5	36.1

^aDifferences between groups were tested using an Independent Samples t test for age, and Pearson Chi square tests in all other cases. Significant differences are in italics
^bEducational level was categorised out of five groups in Brussels: (1) none, (2) primary school, (3) secondary school technical/professional (lower education), (4) secondary school general (medium education), (5) college/university (higher education); and seven groups in Amsterdam: (1) none, (2) primary school, (3) lower vocational education, (4) general secondary education (lower education), (5) secondary vocational education, (6) senior general or pre-university education (medium education), (7) college/university (higher education)
^cFamiliarity with risk groups and protective measures for heat-related health effects were asked as open questions, where respondents could provide as many answers as they wanted. Answers were later grouped in the above-mentioned categories
^dAvoid heat/sun includes the answers ‘stay inside’ and ‘stay in the shade’
^eAdjust clothing includes the answer ‘wear a hat’
^fCool the body includes the answers ‘swim’ and ‘take a shower’

ISSN: 1756-0500