Assessing climate change and health provisions among staff in higher education institutions: A preliminary investigation

The questionnaire was developed by the team of authors following two main key areas of interest in the scope of this investigation: Education and training on Climate Change and Health. This section was created with the aim of comprehending the respondents’ perception of the existing provisions on the topic. Questions focused on the following: i. provisions being sufficient to lead to lasting beha- vioural changes; ii. Interest of students/researchers on the topic of climate change and health; ii. interest of teaching staff/researchers on training on the topic of climate change and health; iii. level of satisfaction with training provisions (generally and at BSc, Master’s and Doctorate programmes); iv. main sources of information used for teaching/researching on climate change and health; v. aspects covered by teaching/research; and vi. aspects that demand further training. These aspects were based on Kotcher et al. [36] guidelines. Policy, research and training needs. This section focused on the perception of respondents based on national contexts on the following: i. current initiatives on climate change and health; ii. barriers to the implementation of initiatives; iii. adequate availability of informa- tion regarding the impacts of climate on human health; iv. satisfaction on the emphasis given to provisions for climate change and health in the context of government policies; v. open space to share examples of specific policies on climate change impacts and health; vi. open space of final remarks.

In addition, the developed questionnaire also included an initial section dedicated to col- lecting demographic information for sample description (e.g., country, gender, age group, level of education, expertise and role in the higher education institution). The questionnaire is available in S1 Appendix. After the pre-test, a stage in which an expert group of climate change and health researchers assessed the questionnaire and provided feedback that allowed the authors to reach a final improved revised version [37, 38]. The survey was then disseminated via the online tool Goo- gle Forms. Teaching staff and researchers associated with the International Climate Change Information and Research Programme (ICCIRP) were invited to respond to the survey, as well as those registered in academic networks and mailing lists related to climate change and health. The nature of the research, the methods used, and the fact that no personal data was stored or can be traced back to individuals, conforming with General Data Protection Regu- lation (GDPR) standards, means that the study is not subject to an ethics permit, as specified by the Association of Medical Ethics Committee in Germany, the body responsible for such assessments in the country leading this study. In any case, and considering any argument requesting waiving consent, all respondents willingly agreed to participate in the study, con- firmed through an additional question added to the beginning of the questionnaire, present- ing options for yes or no. The survey collected responses during the second semester of

2022, from 5th July to 28th November and the results were analysed using descriptive statistics. The survey was able to collect answers from 120 participants from 42 countries across all continents: Argentina, Austria, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Cameroon, Canada, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Germany, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Kyrgyz Republic, Liberia, Malawi, Mexico, Mozambique, New Zealand, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Portugal, Senegal, Serbia, South Africa, Spain, Sudan, The Nether- lands, Tunisia, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States of America, Zambia, Zimbabwe. Table 1 presents the countries which were captured by this survey. It is possible to observe that 60% represent developing countries. PLOS ONE Climate change and health in HEIs PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0304019 May 21, 2024 5 / 21