The impact of Zoe, the world’s first named heat wave: Associations with public engagement in heat wave safety behaviors

Theoretical Background and research questions/hypothesis: Extreme heat event events, or heat waves, represent a major public health risk that lead to the death of almost 500,000 people worldwide, every year (Zhao et al., 2021). However, people can engage in behaviors that can decrease the likelihood of severe, heat-related medical events such as avoiding the heat (e.g., spend more time indoors), reduce the impact of extreme heat, or prosocial behaviors heat wave behaviors. (Metzger et al, 2023; WHO, 2018). One potential public health messaging strategy for raising public awareness of heat waves and increasing heat wave safety behavior is to apply a name to heat waves, as is done for other dangerous weather phenomena such as hurricanes. The logic is that naming a weather event eases public discourse about the event and raises the perceived importance, which will, in turn, lead people to engage in protective behaviors. The current study evaluated awareness of the world’s first named heat wave, “Zoe” was associated with increased engagement in heat wave safety behavior.

Methods: The world’s first named heat wave was called “Zoe” and occurred in the regions of Seville and Cordoba in southern Spain during the summer of 2022. A public messaging campaign was developed to increase awareness of “Zoe” that involved social media, messaging from local government officials, and distribution to local news outlets including newspapers and television news. Following the heat wave, an online survey (n = 2130) was administered to adults 25 and older who lived in Seville and Cordoba, as well as residents of neighboring regions in southern Spain. Participants reported whether they engaged in avoidant (e.g., spent more time indoors), reduction (wore different clothes, etc.), and prosocial (e.g., helped someone else stay safe) heat wave safety behaviors during the most recent heat wave. To assess exposure to the messaging campaign and awareness of “Zoe” both unaided recall (What was the name of the heat wave? (free response)) and aided recall (Do you remember a heat wave named Zoe?) were measured. 6% of the sample remembered the heat wave name “Zoe”, unaided, and 26% recalled the name “Zoe” with prompting (aided recall).

Results: Associations between awareness of the heat wave naming campaign (aided and unaided recall) and participant engagement in avoidant, reduction, and prosocial heat wave behaviors were examined via hierarchical regression models that controlled for participants gender, age, monthly income, and self-reported health status. Model results indicated that unaided awareness of “Zoe” was associated with increased engagement in both avoidant and prosocial heat wave behaviors over and above demographic characteristics.

Conclusions: Findings from this study provide initial evidence that naming heat waves may serve as an important health messaging strategy to increase public engagement in heat wave safety behaviors. Presentation will include a broader discussion of implications for future research and public health policy, as well as background on the heat wave naming campaign in Spain, and study limitations.

Implications for research and/or practice: Findings provide initial support for naming heat waves as a mechanism for increasing public awareness around heat waves and increasing heat wave safety behavior.