Mombasa City residents’ perception of health risks of climate change and its impact on behaviour change

Fredrick Okaka, Moi University

This study was a cross-sectional survey of 290 households from three residential areas in Mombasa City, Kenya. Over 90% of respondents perceive climate change as posing a risk to their health. Approximately 96% believe that everyone’s health will be affected. The diseases identified as having increased in frequency and severity as a result of climate change were normal cold/cough/fever (85.0%), malaria (81.4%), headaches (73.9%), diarrhea (56.8%) and cholera (55.0%) and new diseases that have emerged were dengue and allergies. About 83% indicated they face barriers to protecting themselves from negative health consequences of climate change, major obstacle being lack of skills (66.2%). Only a minority of respondents (24.0%) have reduced energy consumption based on their knowledge of climate change. However, among those who have reduced their energy consumption, majority (26.0%) are those who perceive climate change as a risk to their health. The study concludes that risk perception has some impact on behavior change.