Kwa Y C, Suboh N, Kay D S W, Lee C I S, Walsh C L, Goodson M L
Newcastle University Medicine Malaysia (NUMed), Iskandar Puteri, Johor, Malaysia.
Newcastle University, School of Engineering, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom.
Med J Malaysia. 2024 Jul;79(4):397-407.
As climate change is threatening every region of the world, extreme weather events resultant of global warming is occurring at increasing rate and scale in Malaysia. Weather-related disasters such as flood and haze pose critical challenges to the infrastructure and raise public health concerns in the country, especially when main economic sectors rely heavily on climate variability. Public perception on environmental issues is crucial for development of pro-environmental policies. Among studies conducted to understand public awareness regarding global warming, reports of perception on the health impacts were very limited. Taking this limitation into account, this study was designed to examine the perception on the health impacts of climate change among the diverse communities living in the Johor River Basin.
The cross-sectional study was conducted through cloud-data-based digital questionnaires completed by randomly selected residents in the Johor River Basin (n=647). Data was analysed with descriptive statistics using SPSS 27 (IBM®) Software. Comparisons between indigenous and non-indigenous communities were performed using Chi square analysis.
Respondents in this study consisted of indigenous people (n=79) and non-indigenous people (n=568). Indigenous respondents generally perceived more frequent occurrence of extreme weather events in the next 20 years, even for the phenomena unfamiliar in Malaysian settings. All respondents showed similar concerns for health impacts of global warming, although the non-indigenous respondents perceived the risk further into the future (25 years) compared to the indigenous respondents who perceived current or imminent (<10 years) risks. Intense concerns for self, children, family members and community were shown by nearly all indigenous respondents (97-99%), while the non-indigenous people in this study expressed stronger concerns at country level and for future generations. During the last haze episode, most indigenous respondents (85%) did not notice any change in air quality nor discomfort among family members, in contrast 70% of the nonindigenous respondents claimed to have suffered from breathing problems themselves as well as others in the family. All respondents were concerned about air quality in their surroundings, indigenous people were concerned for the near future (<10 years), and non-indigenous people were concerned for the next 25 years.
In this study, respondents were generally concerned about the health impacts of unimpeded global warming. There was significant difference in perceptions between indigenous and non-indigenous respondents. The findings were useful, complemented with further studies, to improve understanding of public awareness and to help develop relevant education programmes accessible for wider audience.
随着气候变化威胁着世界的每个地区，全球变暖导致的极端天气事件在马来西亚正以越来越快的速度和规模发生。洪水和雾霾等与天气相关的灾害给基础设施带来了严峻挑战，并引发了该国公众对健康的担忧，尤其是当主要经济部门严重依赖气候变异性时。公众对环境问题的看法对于制定环保政策至关重要。在为了解公众对全球变暖的认识而进行的研究中，关于对健康影响的看法的报告非常有限。考虑到这一局限性，本研究旨在调查柔佛河流域不同社区对气候变化健康影响的看法。
本横断面研究通过基于云数据的数字问卷进行，由柔佛河流域随机抽取的居民（n = 647）完成。使用SPSS 27（IBM®）软件对数据进行描述性统计分析。使用卡方分析对原住民和非原住民社区进行比较。
本研究的受访者包括原住民（n = 79）和非原住民（n = 568）。原住民受访者普遍认为在未来20年内极端天气事件会更频繁发生，即使是在马来西亚不常见的现象。所有受访者对全球变暖对健康的影响都表现出类似的担忧，尽管与认为当前或即将发生（<10年）风险的原住民受访者相比，非原住民受访者认为风险会在更遥远的未来（25年）出现。几乎所有原住民受访者（97 - 99%）对自己、孩子、家庭成员和社区表现出强烈担忧，而本研究中的非原住民在国家层面和对后代表达了更强烈担忧。在上一次雾霾事件期间，大多数原住民受访者（85%）没有注意到空气质量有任何变化，家庭成员也没有不适，相比之下，70%的非原住民受访者声称自己以及家中其他人都出现了呼吸问题。所有受访者都关心周围环境的空气质量，原住民关心不久的将来（<10年），非原住民关心未来25年。
在本研究中，受访者普遍关注不受阻碍的全球变暖对健康的影响。原住民和非原住民受访者的看法存在显著差异。这些发现很有用，辅以进一步研究，有助于增进对公众意识的理解，并帮助制定可供更广泛受众使用的相关教育计划。
