Notwithstanding Abundant Evidence of the Health Threats posed by Extreme Heat and Substantial Investments in Heat Early Warning and Response Systems, Extreme Heat Events Continue to Be Associated With Large Numbers of Deaths Each Year. The High Death Toll posed by heat suggests a need for new approaches to communicate and reduces Risk. The Current Study examined the impacts of a specific public Health Messaging Strategy, Naming Heat Events Classified as The Most Severe In Terms of Potential Impacts On Excess Mortality. Specifically, We Sought To Evaluate Whether People resinging in the Seville Area During Summer 2022 Recalled Heat Wave Zoe As an indicator of their Awareness of the Associated Heat Wave Messaging Campaign. In A Survey driving at the end of the summer, We Found That 6% of Respondents Were Uble to Recall Zoe Without Assistance and Another 26% reported recalling heat wave Zoe with prompting. AIDED RECALL WAS MOST COMMON AMONG YOUR INDIVIDUALS AND UNIDED RECALL WAS MOST COMMON ENGITIES REPORTING HIGHER MONTHLY DISASSADLES.

Although at The Time of this Study, Naming of Heat Waves Was Unprecedentd, Naming of Other Types of Weather Events Is Commonly Used To Communicate That Event’s Severity and Potential Impacts Both Internaly and To The Public²². For Example, in the United States, Hurricanes have prescribed Names Since the Early 1950s²³. Naming Extreme Weather Events Is Generally Accepthed by the public, including among that have had a prior negative experiences with Weather Events²⁴. There is mixed empirical evidence for whether naming effectively conveys the severity of a weather event, preparation influences, or finds behavior uptake to reduce Health Risks Associated with the Event. For Instance, Laboratory Research Has Found That The Inclusion of A Storm Name In Storm Descriptions You have negligible impact on participants’ Ratings of the Storm’s Severity^25.26. In an experimenting presenting mock twitter posts from the weather channel about a winter storm, there was no significant differentment in perception of story severity Between participants who were shown²⁵. Another Study Found That Severity Perceptions were Strongest in the No-Name Condition Followed by Named Storm Conditions²⁶. Limited Research Suggests that the Kind of Name Chosen for a Storm (IE A Humorous, UNCOMMON, OR COMMON NAME, etc.) MAY AFFECT RISK PERCEPTION^25.26. Importently, Most of the Previous Research on Naming Weather Events Has Been Driving In Controlled, Laboratory Settings, and There Is Less Research on Perception of Real-Life Named Storms Or Whether Awareness of A Named Storm Affects Behavior Or Attitudes.

The Limited Available Evidence Suggests That Commonly Issued Heat Alerts (IE, Without Names) Are Not Having The Intended Effect of Lowering Risk of Heat-Related Deaths^27,28. In contrast to prior laboratory experiments, The Current Study Was Based on A Real-Life Named Heat Wave. Potentially, Because The Extreme Weather Event Was Actually Experience by participants rather that presented to Hypothetical Scenario, The Salience of Heat Wave-Related Messages and Awareness of The Heat Wave May May Have Been Higher Than In Laboratory Settings.

A Number of Behaviors May Help Individuals Reduces The Health Risks Associated With Exposure To Extreme Heat^3.29and Previous Research Suggests That Beliefs About Heat Waves May Affect Engagement in Heat Wave Safety Behaviors^19,29,30. Previous Research Has Found That Individuals Engage in A Wide Range of Behavioral Strategies To Cope With Elevated Heat, With Varying Efficacy¹⁹. Accordingly, We Hypothesized that public messaging campaigns that convey the Health Risks of Extreme Heat and finding Heat Wave Safety Behaviors Could Help Reduce the negative Health Impacts of Extreme Heat Events. The Current Study Provides Initial Evidence for the Potential Utility of Naming Heat Waves As Part of A Comprehensive Heath Health Early Warning System and Communications Campaign. Individuals Who Were Aware of the Messaging Campaign and Could Recall the Heat Wave Name Zoe Reported Engagement in Statistically significantly More Heat Wave Safety Behaviors and Also Had Signantly Favorable Attitudes Toward Heat Wave Naming and Their Local Government’s Efforts To Keep Its Citizens Safe From Heat.

Awareness of the Heat Wave Messaging Campaign Differented Based on Several Demographic Characteristics. Participants Who Recalled The Name Zoe TEEDED TO BE YOUR AND HAVE HIGH DRAINES THOS TOHOS WHO WERE NOT AWARE OF THE CAMPAIGN. Younger, Wealthier People Are More Likely to Use Social Media Platforms³¹Which was to Primary Medium Through which the Heat Wave Naming Campaign was distributed. In Adionion, Individual Demography Characteristics Such As Gender, Age, Health Status, and Socioeconomic Status were Also Significate Predictors of Both engagement in heat wave safety Behaviors and Beliefs About Heat Waves. Thus, The Prometheus Sevilla Messaging Campaign May has disportely rear bows that were already at loower risk of adverse Health Impacts and/or already engagement in more adaptive behaviors. It woold be useful for future studies to examine how to best tailor messaging to reach those individuals or communities thought to be at greatest risk or least engaged in personal adaptive behaviors.

Although Further Research is Needed, Our Initial Assessment You have potential implications for public Health Policy. GIVEN THE HEALTH RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH Extreme Heat, Encouraging Engagement in Heat Wave Safety Behavior and Bolstering Community Emergency Respons¹⁴. The Current Study Indicates That Naming A Heat Wave is Associated With Increased engagement in a Range of Protection Behaviors, Infinuding Avoidance, Reduction, and Prosocial Behaviors. Interestingly, Awareness of Zoe was Associated with Greater engagement in prosocial activities, particularly Communicating with Others and Warning Others About Heat Waves. Prosocial Activities May Be specially Important, as they are least enrague in during during during heat waves¹⁹Yet May Serve as an Important Mechanism for Increaseing Community Resilience and Reaching the Most Vulnerable Members of A Community^32,33. Naming Heat Waves May Help To Facilitate Communication Among Community Members by Provideing A Common Identifier, Which May Make The Extreme Heat Event More Tangible and Easy to Talk About.

While Awareness Of Zoe was not associated with each Individual Measure of Beliefs, The Beliefs That Were Associated With Awareness of Zoe Provide Important Insights for Public Health Policy and Public Health Messaging Efforts. Findings Provide Initial Evidence That Exposure To Heat Wave Names May Increased Individuals’ Perception of the Dangers of Heat Waves, As Those Who Remembered The Name Zoe Via AIDED RECALL MORE STRONGLY AGREED THAT NAMED WEATHER EVENTS ARE MORE DANGEROUS THAN OTHER WEATHER EVESS.

While Zoe was The First Named Heat Wave, By The End of August 2023 An Additional 3 Named Heat Waves Had Been Named Through Prometheus Seville (Yago, June 25–27; Xenia, July 10 – July 13; and Wenceslao, August 7–13). Following the Summer of 2023, There is additional Opportunity for Future Research to Evaluate The Utility of Naming Heat Waves, and Under Which Conditions Naming and Associated Messaging Is Well Received by Communities and Effective at Reductive Heat Health Risks. Zoe was named with and through partnerships with the City of Seville and the University of Seville, which may have contributed to the finding that those that recalled Zoe Had Greater Trust That The Local Government is Working to Protect Them from Heat. The Experience in Seville Suggests That Public Trust in the Organization Leading The Naming and Communication is Essential To Reaching and Impacting A Wide Audience, Although We Were Not Aable To Directly Test The test This Hypothesis in This Study.

Limitations and Future Research

The Current Study’s Findings need to be interpreted in light of its Methodological Limitations. Our Analysis are Based on Self-Reported Data, which is prone to measurement Social including error DesiRabability Biasaes. Although the Survey was administered in the Fall Following the Heat Wave (1–1.5 Mounts Later), Self-Report Measures Are Also susceptible to respondent Recall Error. In Adionion, The Studied Regions in Spain continues to experience Warm Temperatures During the Months of Seffier and Early October (When the Survey Was Fielded), So Participants’ Respons May Have Been influenced by The Warm Weather They Were Currently Experience. However, All Survey Questions Primed Ansndents To Considers Behaviors and Attitudes During the Most Recent Extreme Heat Event They Had Experienced. IN ADDITION, The Current Study Measuraled Eleven Key Heat Wave Safety Behaviors That were representative of the Three Behavior Categories, Butut Future Research Should Considered Measuring Additional Behaviors Such As Addionional Personal Cooling Strategies (use of fans, air conditioning, etc. Primary Independent Variable was recall of the heat wave name Zoe and Overall Recall Levels (Both AIDED and Unaided) Were Fairly Low In Absolute Tress. In Addiction, Primary Findings Are Based on Correlational Data. Although Findings were Derived from Models Controlling for a Number of Demography and Socioeconomic Factors, It is not possessible to rule out Alternative Explanations for the Found Association. Future Research Using Longitudinal Data to individual track Change in Behavior/Attitudes Over Time in Relation to Message Campaign Awareness Could Confirm or refute tohesis findings. In Adionion, There was not on comparison sample exposed to a similar Heat Wave Messaging Campaign Without The Name Zoe. In Future Research, Experimental Designs could be used to explore the impact of heat wave messaging campaigns that include the naming component vs. Those that do not include Heat Wave Name. The Overall Reach of the Prometheus Heat Health Naming and Categorizing Pilot Messaging Campaign Was Fairly Limited. A retrospective Study of the Discussion Activity Across News Networks and Social Networking Sites, Showed Only A Total of 140 Posts Mentioning Both Zoe and the Word Heat Wave (In English Or Spanish), Resulting in 37,500 Impressions Reaching About 6 Million People (SEE SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIALS). Future Research on Larger-Scale Pilots and Messaging Campaigns Is Warrad. Compared to the greelter Spanish population, Older Adults were underrepresented in the current study sample, though Older Adults tend to be underrepresented in Online Research, in General, Due to Generational and Technological Barriers²¹.

It Will Also Be Important For Future Research to Explore Causal Connections and Potential Mechanisms By As Exposure To Heat Wave Naming May Be Associated With Increased Engagement in Heat Wave Safety Behavior. For Instance, Seeing That a Heat Wave Has Been Named May Increased Beliefs That the Event is Serious and Worthy of An Individual’s Attention, which, in turn, Could Lead Individuals to Take More Precaies. Naming a Heat Wave Could Also Ease Communication and Dissemination of Information about the Heat Wave Both Through Formal Channels, Such As News Outlets, and informal Channels, Such As Discussions Individuals In Person and on Social Media. IN ADDITION, WHILE THE CURRENT STUDY STATITICALLY CONTROLLED FOR RISK FACTORS AS AGE AND HEALTH STATUS, FUTURE REESARCH SHOULD EXPLORE WHETHER HEAT WAVE NAMING CAMPAIGNS DIFFERENTIALLY AFFECT THE HEAT WAVE SAFEL As Older Adults, Individuals with Pervasive Health Issues, Pregnant Women, etc. Finally, The Messaging Campaign Around Zoe Was Part of A Hhews Categorizing and Naming Pilott Project, But Recall of the Specific Categorizing System was not related to engagement in heat wave safety Behavior or Beliefs Toward Heat Waves. Future Research Could Include Additional Measures which Further Assess Individual’s Understanding of the Links Between The Heat Wave Name and Heat Health Early Warning Systems or Categories.