IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v10y2013i11p5565-5583d29965.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Extreme Heat and Health: Perspectives from Health Service Providers in Rural and Remote Communities in South Australia

Author

Listed:
  • Susan Williams

    (Discipline of Public Health, School of Population Health, The University of Adelaide, South Australia 5005, Australia)

  • Peng Bi

    (Discipline of Public Health, School of Population Health, The University of Adelaide, South Australia 5005, Australia)

  • Jonathan Newbury

    (Discipline of Rural Health, School of Population Health, The University of Adelaide, South Australia 5005, Australia)

  • Guy Robinson

    (Centre for Regional Engagement, University of South Australia, 111 Nicolson Avenue, Whyalla South Australia 5608, Australia)

  • Dino Pisaniello

    (Discipline of Public Health, School of Population Health, The University of Adelaide, South Australia 5005, Australia)

  • Arthur Saniotis

    (Discipline of Public Health, School of Population Health, The University of Adelaide, South Australia 5005, Australia)

  • Alana Hansen

    (Discipline of Public Health, School of Population Health, The University of Adelaide, South Australia 5005, Australia)

Abstract

Among the challenges for rural communities and health services in Australia, climate change and increasing extreme heat are emerging as additional stressors. Effective public health responses to extreme heat require an understanding of the impact on health and well-being, and the risk or protective factors within communities. This study draws on lived experiences to explore these issues in eleven rural and remote communities across South Australia, framing these within a socio-ecological model. Semi-structured interviews with health service providers ( n = 13), and a thematic analysis of these data, has identified particular challenges for rural communities and their health services during extreme heat. The findings draw attention to the social impacts of extreme heat in rural communities, the protective factors (independence, social support, education, community safety), and challenges for adaptation (vulnerabilities, infrastructure, community demographics, housing and local industries). With temperatures increasing across South Australia, there is a need for local planning and low-cost strategies to address heat-exacerbating factors in rural communities, to minimise the impact of extreme heat in the future.

Suggested Citation

  • Susan Williams & Peng Bi & Jonathan Newbury & Guy Robinson & Dino Pisaniello & Arthur Saniotis & Alana Hansen, 2013. "Extreme Heat and Health: Perspectives from Health Service Providers in Rural and Remote Communities in South Australia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-19, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:10:y:2013:i:11:p:5565-5583:d:29965
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/10/11/5565/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/10/11/5565/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Smoyer, Karen E., 1998. "Putting risk in its place: methodological considerations for investigating extreme event health risk," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 47(11), pages 1809-1824, December.
    2. Harlan, Sharon L. & Brazel, Anthony J. & Prashad, Lela & Stefanov, William L. & Larsen, Larissa, 2006. "Neighborhood microclimates and vulnerability to heat stress," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(11), pages 2847-2863, December.
    3. Alana Hansen & Peng Bi & Monika Nitschke & Dino Pisaniello & Jonathan Newbury & Alison Kitson, 2011. "Perceptions of Heat-Susceptibility in Older Persons: Barriers to Adaptation," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 8(12), pages 1-15, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Alina Herrmann & Rainer Sauerborn, 2018. "General Practitioners’ Perceptions of Heat Health Impacts on the Elderly in the Face of Climate Change—A Qualitative Study in Baden-Württemberg, Germany," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-21, April.
    2. Jan C. Semenza, 2014. "Climate Change and Human Health," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-7, July.
    3. An Vu & Shannon Rutherford & Dung Phung, 2019. "Heat Health Prevention Measures and Adaptation in Older Populations—A Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(22), pages 1-22, November.
    4. Katarzyna Kocur-Bera & Szymon Czyża, 2023. "Socio-Economic Vulnerability to Climate Change in Rural Areas in the Context of Green Energy Development—A Study of the Great Masurian Lakes Mesoregion," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(3), pages 1-24, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Vaneckova, Pavla & Beggs, Paul J. & Jacobson, Carol R., 2010. "Spatial analysis of heat-related mortality among the elderly between 1993 and 2004 in Sydney, Australia," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(2), pages 293-304, January.
    2. Lin Zhou & Zheng Xin & Li Bai & Fangjun Wan & Yongming Wang & Shaowei Sang & Shouqin Liu & Ji Zhang & Qiyong Liu, 2014. "Perceptions of Heat Risk to Health: A Qualitative Study of Professional Bus Drivers and Their Managers in Jinan, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-16, January.
    3. Walton, Z.L. & Poudyal, N.C. & Hepinstall-Cymerman, J. & Johnson Gaither, C. & Boley, B.B., 2016. "Exploring the role of forest resources in reducing community vulnerability to the heat effects of climate change," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 94-102.
    4. Hui Ye & Juan Ma & Yang Wu & Ying Zhang, 2018. "Perceptions of Health Risks from Hot Weather, and Coping Behaviors among Ethnic Minority Groups in Mountain Areas of China: A Case Study in the Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-9, November.
    5. Sharon L. Campbell & Carina C. Anderson & Amanda J. Wheeler & Stephen Cook & Tim Muster & Fay H. Johnston, 2022. "Managing Extreme Heat and Smoke: A Focus Group Study of Vulnerable People in Darwin, Australia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-15, October.
    6. Joost van Hoof & Helen Bennetts & Alana Hansen & Jan K. Kazak & Veronica Soebarto, 2019. "The Living Environment and Thermal Behaviours of Older South Australians: A Multi-Focus Group Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(6), pages 1-19, March.
    7. Weihua Dong & Zhao Liu & Lijie Zhang & Qiuhong Tang & Hua Liao & Xian'en Li, 2014. "Assessing Heat Health Risk for Sustainability in Beijing’s Urban Heat Island," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(10), pages 1-24, October.
    8. Sara Wilkinson & Renato Castiglia Feitosa, 2015. "Retrofitting Housing with Lightweight Green Roof Technology in Sydney, Australia, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(1), pages 1-18, January.
    9. De Valck, Jeremy & Beames, Alistair & Liekens, Inge & Bettens, Maarten & Seuntjens, Piet & Broekx, Steven, 2019. "Valuing urban ecosystem services in sustainable brownfield redevelopment," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 139-149.
    10. Tao Chen & Anchang Sun & Ruiqing Niu, 2019. "Effect of Land Cover Fractions on Changes in Surface Urban Heat Islands Using Landsat Time-Series Images," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(6), pages 1-18, March.
    11. Maria Papathoma-Koehle & Catrin Promper & Roxana Bojariu & Roxana Cica & András Sik & Kinga Perge & Peter László & Erika Balázs Czikora & Alexandru Dumitrescu & Cosmin Turcus & Marius-Victor Birsan & , 2016. "A common methodology for risk assessment and mapping for south-east Europe: an application for heat wave risk in Romania," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 82(1), pages 89-109, May.
    12. Qunshan Zhao & Elizabeth A. Wentz, 2016. "A MODIS/ASTER Airborne Simulator (MASTER) Imagery for Urban Heat Island Research," Data, MDPI, vol. 1(1), pages 1-9, June.
    13. Yuan-Bin Cai & Ke Li & Yan-Hong Chen & Lei Wu & Wen-Bin Pan, 2021. "The Changes of Heat Contribution Index in Urban Thermal Environment: A Case Study in Fuzhou," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-18, August.
    14. Weihua Dong & Zhao Liu & Hua Liao & Qiuhong Tang & Xian’en Li, 2015. "New climate and socio-economic scenarios for assessing global human health challenges due to heat risk," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 130(4), pages 505-518, June.
    15. Mabon, Leslie & Shih, Wan-Yu, 2018. "What might ‘just green enough’ urban development mean in the context of climate change adaptation? The case of urban greenspace planning in Taipei Metropolis, Taiwan," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 224-238.
    16. An Vu & Shannon Rutherford & Dung Phung, 2019. "Heat Health Prevention Measures and Adaptation in Older Populations—A Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(22), pages 1-22, November.
    17. Yizhou Wu & Yueer Wu & Yaxin Pan, 2024. "Sustainability Optimization Method of Built Environment with Integrated Physical Environment and Virtual Perception Simulation: A Case Study of Campus Open Space," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(20), pages 1-26, October.
    18. Derick A. Akompab & Peng Bi & Susan Williams & Janet Grant & Iain A. Walker & Martha Augoustinos, 2013. "Heat Waves and Climate Change: Applying the Health Belief Model to Identify Predictors of Risk Perception and Adaptive Behaviours in Adelaide, Australia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-21, May.
    19. Young-Jae Kim & Ayoung Woo, 2015. "Estimating Natural Environmental Characteristics of Subsidized Households: A Case Study of Austin, Texas," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(10), pages 1-21, September.
    20. Thandi Kapwata & Michael T. Gebreslasie & Angela Mathee & Caradee Yael Wright, 2018. "Current and Potential Future Seasonal Trends of Indoor Dwelling Temperature and Likely Health Risks in Rural Southern Africa," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-16, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:10:y:2013:i:11:p:5565-5583:d:29965. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.