What’s the context for this evidence review?

Extreme weather events are becoming more frequent worldwide, posing growing risks to health and wellbeing. These risks are not evenly distributed: older people, children, those with existing health conditions, or deprived areas are disproportionately affected.

The Scottish Government has set out a coordinated response through the Scottish National Adaptation Plan (2024–2029) and the Adverse Weather and Health Plan (2024–27), which is concerned with four main adverse weather hazards: periods of extreme hot and cold weather, flooding and drought. 

The health harms related to these events are not inevitable: effective public health messaging is crucial to help people understand risks and take protective action. Yet, research, including our own RESILOC study, shows that risk perception is complex: awareness of climate risks does not always translate into preparation or behaviour change. Trust, social norms, personal experience, and community context all shape how people respond.

To address this challenge, ClimateXChange (CXC), on behalf of the Scottish Government and Public Health Scotland (PHS) has commissioned us, in partnership with the Innovation Unit, to establish the most effective and relevant national-level communications approaches to encourage people to engage in positive health behaviours in the context of adverse weather. This refers to both what is communicated (effectiveness of messaging) and how it is communicated (which communication channels are most effective).

What are we doing?

The project is guided by the following research questions:

• What UK and international evidence currently exists on the effectiveness of public health messages disseminated for adverse weather events, for general and at-risk populations?
• Which communications channels used for adverse weather events (for general and at-risk populations) are most effective and why?
• What factors influence the public’s risk perception and health and wellbeing behavioural responses in relation to adverse weather events?

To answer these questions, in collaboration with the project’s Steering Group, we are:

• Carrying out a rapid evidence review of peer-reviewed journal articles and ‘grey literature’, synthesising existing UK and international research on health communication in the context of heat, cold, flooding, and drought;
• Working directly with organisations and communities in Scotland, including those who represent or belong to groups with lived experience of adverse weather, building on and enriching the evidence review findings. Through workshops and interviews, we will explore how different groups experience and respond to public health messages, and what helps or hinders their engagement.

The insights from this work will support the delivery of the Public Health Scotland Adverse Weather and Health Plan.

How this fits into our work

This project builds on our wider programme of research into climate change and resilience. 

Most recently, we completed the development of a new framework to help measure the Just Transition in Scotland, an evidence review on climate change and mental health, which examined international evidence on how climate impacts affect wellbeing. This work also connects with our European projects RESILOC (on community resilience to natural disasters) and EmerGent (on the use of social media in emergencies).