Development of a Survey to Determine Why and How Exposure Occurs in Cases of Heat-Related Illness Pubblico

Abstract

Heat-related illness, such as heat cramps, heat exhaustion, and heat stroke, are caused by “exposure to abnormal or prolonged amounts of heat and humidity without relief or adequate fluid intake”. In the United States alone, ~700 deaths per year are reported as related to heat exposure. Two reasons for the under-reporting of heat-related illness are that heat-related illnesses are not required to be reported to public health agencies, and heat-related deaths are often misclassified. The purpose of this thesis is to improve the quality of a survey for use by Emory’s Climate & Health Actionable Research and Translation Center’s matched case-control study to assess risk factors among patients experiencing heat-related illness requiring ED care. To substantiate the effectiveness of the survey, I conducted pilot testing with available and willing participants to 1) create a time estimate for survey completion, 2) determine areas to improve existing questions on the survey, and 3) generate a list of questions that could be a constructive addition to the survey. I tested the survey on 10 people, in a similar manner to how it will be conducted in the Emergency Department once the study official commences. To gain insight into the experience of taking the survey and determine if there were unclear questions, I created a post-survey questionnaire for the participants. I identified three themes related to confusion about questions consistent across the participants: lack of understanding of medical/academic terminology, not knowing the answer to the questions, and confusion around the scale of answer options. I suggest modifications to 25 of 91 questions and suggest seven new questions. The findings from the work will improve the final survey tool aimed at ascertaining how and why heat exposure occurred that led to the participants’ heat-related ED visits.

Table of Contents

Heat-related illness 1

Definitions 1

Why are we concerned now? 2

Disproportionately affected and at-risk populations 3

Older adults 4

Children 4

Chronic medical conditions 5

Low-income 5

Athletes 6

Outdoor workers 6

Pregnant women 7

Adapting to extreme heat 8

Climate & Health Actionable Research and Translation Center (CHART) 9

Aims and objectives 9

Original survey 9

Survey testing 10

Feedback on survey questions 10

Survey time to completion 15

Discussion and Limitations 16

References 19

Appendix 1: Original Survey 22

Appendix 2: All other surveys drawn from for the design of our survey. 35

Appendix 3: Post-survey questionnaire 37

About this Master's Thesis

Rights statement

• Permission granted by the author to include this thesis or dissertation in this repository. All rights reserved by the author. Please contact the author for information regarding the reproduction and use of this thesis or dissertation.

School	Rollins School of Public Health
Department	Environmental Health
Degree	M.P.H.
Submission	Master's Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Health Sciences, Public Health
Parola chiave	Heat-related illness Survey quality improvement
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Noah Scovronick, Emory University

Ultima modifica

Primary PDF

Thumbnail	Title	Date Uploaded	Actions
	Development of a Survey to Determine Why and How Exposure Occurs in Cases of Heat-Related Illness ()	2023-12-05 09:51:11 -0500	Press to Select an action Download

Supplemental Files

Thumbnail	Title	Date Uploaded	Actions