title: Community trial on heat related-illness prevention behaviors and knowledge for the elderly.
abstract: This study aims to explore whether broadcasting heat health warnings (HHWs), to every household and whether the additional home delivery of bottled water labeled with messages will be effective in improving the behaviors and knowledge of elderly people to prevent heat-related illness. A community trial on heat-related-illness-prevention behaviors and knowledge for people aged between 65 and 84 years was conducted in Nagasaki, Japan. Five hundred eight subjects were selected randomly from three groups: heat health warning (HHW), HHW and water delivery (HHW+W), and control groups. Baseline and follow-up questionnaires were conducted in June and September 2012, respectively. Of the 1524 selected subjects, the 1072 that completed both questionnaires were analyzed. The HHW+W group showed improvements in nighttime AC use (p=0.047), water intake (p=0.003), cooling body (p=0.002) and reduced activities in heat (p=0.047) compared with the control, while the HHW group improved hat or parasol use (p=0.008). An additional effect of household water delivery was observed in water intake (p=0.067) and cooling body (p=0.095) behaviors. HHW and household bottled water delivery improved heat-related-illness-prevention behaviors. The results indicate that home water delivery in addition to a HHW may be needed to raise awareness of the elderly.
authors: Department of Paediatric Infectious Diseases, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Nagasaki University, 1-12-4 Sakamoto, Nagasaki 852-8523, Japan. pediatric.nagasaki@gmail.com.|Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Nagasaki University, 1-12-4 Sakamoto, Nagasaki 852-8523, Japan. pediatric.nagasaki@gmail.com.|National Center for Child Health and Development, 2-10-1 Okura, Setagaya, Tokyo 157-8535, Japan. pediatric.nagasaki@gmail.com.
authors: Noriko
authors: N
authors: Takahashi
authors: Department of Nursing, Graduate School of Biomedical Science, Nagasaki University, 1-7-1 Sakamoto, Nagasaki 852-8520, Japan. rieko@nagasaki-u.ac.jp.
authors: Rieko
authors: R
authors: Nakao
authors: The National Institute for Environmental Studies, 16-2 Onogawa, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8506, Japan. ueda.kayo.8x@kyoto-u.ac.jp.
authors: Kayo
authors: K
authors: Ueda
authors: The National Institute for Environmental Studies, 16-2 Onogawa, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8506, Japan. onomasaj@nies.go.jp.
authors: Masaji
authors: M
authors: Ono
authors: Faculty of Medicine, University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1 Tennodai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8575, Japan. mkondo@md.tsukuba.ac.jp.
authors: Masahide
authors: M
authors: Kondo
authors: Faculty of Health and Sport Sciences, University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1 Tennodai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8575, Japan. honda@taiiku.tsukuba.ac.jp.
authors: Yasushi
authors: Y
authors: Honda
authors: Department of Paediatric Infectious Diseases, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Nagasaki University, 1-12-4 Sakamoto, Nagasaki 852-8523, Japan. hashizum@nagasaki-u.ac.jp.|Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Nagasaki University, 1-12-4 Sakamoto, Nagasaki 852-8523, Japan. hashizum@nagasaki-u.ac.jp.
authors: Masahiro
authors: M
authors: Hashizume
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D015438:Health Behavior; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods*; D006299:Health Services for the Aged; D018882:Heat Stress Disorders / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires