Assessment of the knowledge and attitude of Sri Lankan adults on climate change and its effects on human health

Abstract Introduction Climate change is a global adverse phenomenon affecting the health and wellbeing of all humans, and timely awareness can help mitigate these health effects. Objective To understand the knowledge and attitudes of Sri Lankan adults towards climate change and its effects on human health. Methods A web based cross-sectional survey was conducted using a structured, pretested, web based, self-administered questionnaire, using a respondent driven sampling technique, among Sri Lankan adults. Data was collected over three months, from 1 st September 2022. Responses were automatically stored in a cloud-based database and were imported into a spreadsheet and analysed using MS Excel. Results Majority of the 118 respondents were young, educated, employed adults from western province, and 56.78% were females. Overall knowledge on climate change was good among 82.20%, while over 90% had a good or favourable knowledge on health effects associated with climate change. Respondents demonstrated a good awareness of climate effects on skin cancer (92.37%), mental illnesses (82.2%) and asthma (82.2%), but were less aware of the effects on diabetes (28.8%), COPD (38.1%) and heart diseases (46.6%), and vector borne diseases such as Malaria (57.6%) and Dengue (61.8%). Over 90% had a good attitude towards the need for climate change mitigation and climate friendly activities being implemented. Conclusions Urban, educated Sri Lankan adults had a good understanding and awareness on the health effects of climate change, and the importance of mitigating it in relation to its health effects, but further studies are needed to understand the awareness levels of the less educated rural communities.