Abstract

Introduction: Climate change intrinsically determines public health and becomes the cause for 10% of global death. About 3 billion people globally and 18.2 million people in Ethiopia are vulnerable. Although climate change related studies are on the verge of growing, focus is given for its agricultural implications. However, public vulnerability and knowledge towards impacts of climate change from public health perspective is largely ignored.

Objective: To assess vulnerability and knowledge towards health impacts of climate change and associated factors among community of Amhara Sayint district, northeastern Ethiopia, 2022

Methods: Community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in Amhara Sayint district, northeastern Ethiopia from July 20-September 5, 2022. Data was collected from 620 randomly selected households. A pilot tested and content-validated questionnaire was used to collect data through face-to-face interview using an online tool called kobocollect. The data was then exported to Stata for management and analysis. Partial proportional & proportional odds models were runwith 95% confidence level to identify factors for vulnerability and knowledge respectively.

Results: Out of 605 respondents, 48.09% (95% CI: 44.1, 52.1) and 4.62% (95% CI: 3, 6.6) of respondents were vulnerable and highly vulnerable to the health impacts of climate change respectively. Wealth status (poor) (AOR1=1.84; 95% CI: 1.2, 2.82), educational level (no formal education) (AOR1=2.81; 95% CI: 1.09, 7.28), marital status (divorce) (AOR2=4.71, 95% CI: 1.65, 13.45) and housing crowdedness (overcrowded) (AOR2=2.99, 95% CI: 1.11, 8.07) were factors associated with vulnerability. Furthermore, about 3.47% (95% CI: 2.1, 5.3) and 42.98% (95% CI: 38.9, 47.1) of respondents had inadequate and medium levels of knowledge respectively. Gender (female) (AOR=1.49; 95% CI: 1.05, 2.13), wealth status (poorest) (AOR=1.97, 95% CI: 1.01, 3.83), educational status (unable to read and write) (AOR=4.13, 95% CI: 1.25, 13.68) and partic-pation in environmental protection activities (not participate) (AOR=1.78, 95% CI: 1.17- 2.71)  were factors associated with inadequate and medium level of knowledge.

Conclusions: Although the majority of Amhara Sayint district residents had adequate knowledge about the health impacts of climate change, they were in a vulnerable condition. Therefore, priority should be given to prevention, preparedness and further improvement of public knowledge.

Keywords: Climate change, Composite Index, Livelihood Vulnerability, Proportional odds