Public perceptions of Lyme disease and climate change in southern Manitoba, Canada: Making a case for strategic decoupling of climate and health messages

Abstract

Background: Despite scientific evidence that climate change has profound and far reaching implications for public health, translating this knowledge in a manner that supports citizen engagement, applied decision-making, and behavioural change can be challenging. This is especially true for complex vector-borne zoonotic diseases such as Lyme disease, a tick-borne disease which is increasing in range and impact across Canada and internationally in large part due to climate change. This research aims to better understand public risk perceptions of climate change and Lyme disease in order to increase engagement and motivate behavioural change.Methods: A focus group study involving 61 participants was conducted in three communities in the Canadian Prairie province of Manitoba in 2019. Focus groups were segmented by urban, rural, and urban-rural geographies, and between participants with high and low levels of self-reported concern regarding climate change. Results: Findings indicate a broad range of knowledge and risk perceptions on both climate change and Lyme disease, which seem to reflect the controversy and complexity of both issues in the larger public discourse. Participants in high climate concern groups were found to have greater climate change knowledge, higher perception of risk, and less scepticism than those in low concern groups. Participants outside of the urban centre were found to have more familiarity with ticks, Lyme disease, and preventative behaviours, identifying potential differential sources of resilience and vulnerability. Risk perceptions of climate change and Lyme disease were found to vary independently rather than correlate, meaning that high climate change risk perception did not necessarily indicate high Lyme disease risk perception and vice versa. Conclusions: This research contributes to the growing literature framing climate change as a public health issue, and suggests that in certain cases climate and health messages might be strategically decoupled when addressing climate skeptical audiences. A model showing the orthogonal relationship between Lyme disease and climate change perceptions is proposed, and implications for engagement on climate change health impacts are discussed.

Evidence-based communication on climate change and health: Testing videos, text, and maps on climate change and Lyme disease in Manitoba, Canada

“…The results here suggest that marrying public health and climate change information is not as straightforward as it may seem, as the association of the two topics may draw skepticism from those already unconvinced or skeptical of climate change. In this context, it seems that “strategically decoupling” the two issues in communications might be more effective in some cases, especially if the primary goal is to motivate adaptive health behaviours among skeptical or mixed opinion audiences [ 51 ]. However, if the goal is to increase awareness regarding the human dimensions of climate change, reframing climate change from an environmental to a human health issue is essential.…”