Knowledge and Attitude of Junior-High-School Children in Bogor, Indonesia, Related to Climate Change Health Impacts

Abstract

Sustainable Development Goals require the capacity for resilience and adaptation to climate-related disasters to be strengthened. This capacity is fundamental in healthy city development, which also highlights the importance for youth to have it as early as possible. Therefore, it is crucial to understand their current state before building their capacity. This study aims at measuring the level of knowledge and attitude of junior-high-school students in Bogor City, West Java Province, Indonesia, on health impacts of climate change and identifying predictors of such knowledge and attitude. A cross-sectional study involving purposively selected 142 students aged 12 to 14 years old in a state-owned junior high school was implemented in 2015. A structured questionnaire was used to mine data regarding the knowledge of and attitude towards climate change health impacts, ownership and utilization of information access, school subject, and supports from close related person. Bivariate analysis was conducted with Chi-square test and multivariate analysis with logistic regression at 0.05 significance. Eighty-two female and sixty male students took part in this study. The proportion of students with good level of knowledge on the health effects of climate change was 69%; meanwhile, 51.4% of the students had less supportive attitude toward the issue of climate change health impacts. The multivariate analysis revealed that an association occurred between the knowledge level and family income (income of IDR 2.5-5 million: AOR 4.63 95%CI 1.26-17.04). Similarly, the level of attitude was associated with maternal education (AOR 2.37 95%CI 1.05-5.34). These results suggest that, in climate change impacts, knowledge is not necessarily in line with attitude and family background has a major role to shape both aspects. Health promotion efforts on climate change health impacts should touch on family experience.

Knowledge, Attitude and Perception on Climate Change and Dietary Choices in a Predominantly Chinese University Students Population in Klang Valley

“…Furthermore, the current study found no significant association between knowledge of climate change and climate-friendly dietary choices. This finding was consistent with a Finnish study that reported a good knowledge of climate change was not associated with climate-friendly dietary choices because knowledge is not always translated into a positive attitude (Korkala et al, 2014;Puspita et al, 2020). Conversely, a Malaysian study reported that knowledge was a predictor of behavioral intention toward the consumption of climate-friendly foods (Shariff et al, 2012).…”

“…The questions about knowledge of climate change were adopted from previous studies (Sulistyawati et al, 2018;Kause et al, 2019;Puspita et al, 2020). This part consisted of 56 items whereby one (1) point was given for each correct answer and zero (0) point was given for the wrong answer.…”

“…The questions about the attitude towards climate change were adopted from past studies (Shariff et al, 2012;Odonkor et al, 2020;Puspita et al, 2020). It consisted of 20 items and the response options were strongly disagree (1), disagree (2), neutral (3), agree (4), and strongly agree (5).…”

“…Earlier studies have focused on knowledge, attitude, and perception towards general climate change and its health impact. However, the aspect of food choice has not been examined in detail (Tobler et al, 2012;Calvo & Apilado, 2015;Siegrist et al, 2015;Sulistyawati et al, 2018;Odonkor et al, 2020;Puspita et al, 2020;Gazzaz & Bassam, 2021). Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the association between knowledge, attitude, perception towards climate change, and barriers to climate-friendly foods with dietary choices of university students in Klang Valley.…”

“…To the best of our knowledge, 35% to 79% of the university and school students had good levels of knowledge and understanding of climate change (Calvo & Apilado, 2015;Odonkor et al, 2020;Puspita et al, 2020;Gazzaz & Bassam, 2021). However, more than 51% to 93% of the university and school students possessed a poor attitude toward climate change and 23% did not perceive a global dietary shift toward a more plant-based diet could reduce climate change (Calvo & Apilado, 2015;Leiserowitz et al, 2020;Puspita et al, 2020). To date, poor knowledge has impacted absent success in dietary shifts to climatefriendly foods.…”