How does a primary school organize outdoor swimming and water safety lessons?

The main purpose of this study was to explore how a primary school organized a week with outdoor education, and especially what characterized the outdoor swimming and water safety (SWS)-lessons. The SWS-lessons were part of the physical education (PE) program. Two teachers and one headmaster from a primary school participated in the study. Four days of video observation of SWS-lessons were used in photo-elicitation interviews with teachers and the headmaster. The findings revealed that the headmaster highly prioritized the outdoor education practice in this school and that the teachers’ colleagues showed great eagerness to cooperate and prioritize these lessons. The week’s organization was characterized by collaborating management, and the outdoor SWS-lessons were characterized by experiential learning, challenge by choice, and risk awareness. The outdoor education practice corresponded well with the Norwegian curriculum goals about learning to be safe in, on, and around water.

The role and importance of perceived risk in medical tourism. Applying the theory of planned behaviour

The main aim of the study was to investigate the role and importance of perceived risk in medical tourism (MT). The research demonstrates that the country of origin and an assessment of the respondents’ own health condition significantly moderates the impact of their attitudes on behavioral intention. The research shows a strong correlation between the risk perceived by the respondents and their attitudes towards MT services. This relationship is significantly moderated by risk awareness, aversion to risk and gender. Additionally, an important factor in the model is the level of satisfaction with medical services in their own country. The survey using a fully structured questionnaire was conducted among young consumers from Jordan, Poland and Turkey. To verify the hypotheses, a multiple regression model with interactions was used.

Measuring Achievement, Affiliation, and Power Motives in Mobility Situations: Development of the Multi-Motive Grid Mobility

The current study introduces the Multi-Motive Grid Mobility (MMG-M) in an age-stratified sample (N = 206) that aims to disentangle six motive components – hope of success, hope of affiliation, hope of power, fear of failure, fear of rejection, and fear of power – in mobility-related and mobility-unrelated scenarios. Similar to the classical Multi-Motive Grid (MMG), we selected 14 picture scenarios representing seven mobility and seven non-mobility situations. The scenarios were combined with 12 statements from the MMG. Both the MMG-M and MMG were assessed to allow comparability between psychometric criteria. The results of confirmatory factor analyses yielded a good model fit for a six-factor solution with an additional mobility factor for the MMG-M. Internal consistency of the items was similar to the MMG. Lastly, we investigated associations between the motive components and mobility-related variables. We found that risk awareness was positively related to all fear components in both mobility and non-mobility scenarios. Most importantly, physical constraint was positively associated with fear of rejection and fear of power in mobility situations underlining the importance to create support systems to reduce these concerns in people’s everyday lives.

IoT for Environmental Management and Security Governance: An Integrated Project in Taiwan

Taiwan is in a hazard-exposed area where people often suffer through typhoons, earthquakes, and landslides, and must face the challenges of environmental and climate changes in ongoing and future developments. Taiwan has implemented an integrated and interdisciplinary project, which is titled Civil IoT Taiwan, for better disaster risk management and risk communication with all stakeholders by cooperating closely with authorities, scientists, and industry. The purposes of this project are to raise public risk awareness to reduce disaster damage and loss and sustainably increase the social, economic, and environmental impacts. For measuring the social impacts of the Civil IoT Taiwan, the social return on investment (SROI) is an evaluation tool to demonstrate the outcomes and impacts of Civil IoT Taiwan to measure its social effects. The SROI ratio of this project is 1.12. Civil IoT Taiwan has just implemented the first development stage in establishing infrastructure for monitoring and sensing; thus, the significant changes and impacts on society, economics, and the environment will be evaluated in the next phase. This ongoing project will also involve more stakeholders for more sustainable and resilient environmental governance in future development.

Lessons learned about the importance of raising risk awareness in the Mediterranean region (north Morocco and west Sardinia, Italy)

In order to mitigate the potentially dramatic effects of natural hazards, risk management measures are critical. However, the lack of interdisciplinary indicators and adaptable governance frameworks highlights society's vulnerability in the particular context of global environmental and climate change. This interdisciplinary research aimed at identifying reliable risk indicators and societal responses regarding natural hazards and climate change impacts to provide a governance framework for disaster risk reduction. Different societies face diverse risks and do not necessarily have the same level of local awareness of these risk. To explore the diversity of risks, two sites were selected from the Mediterranean basin, one chosen from the south coast (north Morocco) and the other from the north coast (the Italian island of Sardinia). North Morocco, a region of multi-risks, is characterised by high demographic and economic pressures; west Sardinia has remarkable biodiversity of wetlands and is characterised by high environmental and agricultural pressures, which in both cases intensify the vulnerability of the coastal areas. Testing for the local population's preparedness for future financial protection allowed for discussing the importance of risk awareness sessions or activities as an indicator of risk management. The significance of risk awareness sessions is shown in a quantitative part of the study, and its importance is also discussed with local stakeholders in north Morocco in a qualitative part of the study. It is shown that, although risk awareness sessions are recognised as important in risk management, they are not necessarily implemented. Based on these findings, further ideas on a new series of less descriptive, more dynamic and more user-friendly indicators are suggested. How can risk sessions be a dynamic indicator of a resilient society? The obtained results could serve in future governance frameworks for the mitigation of natural hazards in the Mediterranean region and more widely. Finally, the urgent need for continuous work to overcome the communication gap between the scientific community, risk administrators, civil society and the general population is emphasised.

Children and Parents’ Awareness Regarding Potential Hazards Derived from the Use of Chemical Products in Greece

Over the last decades, human activities prompted the high production and widespread use of household chemical products, leading to daily exposure of humans to several chemicals. The objective of this study was to investigate the frequency of chemicals’ use by children and parents in Greece and estimate the level of risk awareness and understanding among them. A total of 575 parents and children were asked to answer an anonymous, closed-ended, validated, and self-administered questionnaire. One-third of the children and almost half of the parents participating in the study believed that commonly used chemical products do not pose any risk to human health or to the environment, despite the product labelling. The majority of both children (61.8%) and parents (70.6%) were informed about product safety via the product labelling. Around 20% in both groups could not differentiate between systemic toxicity and acute lethal effects depicted by pictograms on the label and milder hazards, such as skin irritation. Moreover, the information on hazard and precautionary statements appearing on the label was very poorly perceived. Therefore, as both children and parents seem not to clearly identify the hazards and risks arising from the use of everyday chemical products, targeted awareness policies should be implemented to support the safe use of household products.

Algorithmic Self-Tracking for Health: User Perspectives on Risk Awareness and Coping Strategies

Self-tracking with wearable devices and mobile applications is a popular practice that relies on automated data collection and algorithm-driven analytics. Initially designed as a tool for personal use, a variety of public and corporate actors such as commercial organizations and insurance companies now make use of self-tracking data. Associated social risks such as privacy violations or measurement inaccuracies have been theoretically derived, although empirical evidence remains sparse. This article conceptualizes self-tracking as algorithmic-selection applications and empirically examines users’ risk awareness related to self-tracking applications as well as coping strategies as an option to deal with these risks. It draws on representative survey data collected in Switzerland. The results reveal that Swiss self-trackers’ awareness of risks related to the applications they use is generally low and only a small number of those who self-track apply coping strategies. We further find only a weak association between risk awareness and the application of coping strategies. This points to a cost-benefit calculation when deciding how to respond to perceived risks, a behavior explained as a privacy calculus in extant literature. The widespread willingness to pass on personal data to insurance companies despite associated risks provides further evidence for this interpretation. The conclusions—made even more pertinent by the potential of wearables’ track-and-trace systems and state-level health provision—raise questions about technical safeguarding, data and health literacies, and governance mechanisms that might be necessary considering the further popularization of self-tracking for health.

A Case Management Program at Home to Reduce Fall Risk in Older Fallers: A Single-blind Randomized Controlled Trial Protocol (Magic Study) (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Aim: to describe a randomized controlled trial protocol that aims to implement a home multifactorial program for reducing fall risk based on management of risk factors for falls, evaluate its effects on fall risk awareness, rate of falls, economic cost, adherence and satisfaction among older fallers. OBJECTIVE To describe a randomized controlled trial protocol that aims to implement a home multifactorial program for reducing fall risk based on management of risk factors for falls. METHODS This is a single-blind randomized controlled, parallel group trial protocol. Older people with a history of at least two falls in the last year will be divided into 2 groups. Intervention Group will receive a case management at home for reducing risk of falls, including multidimensional assessment, explanation of fall risk factors and elaboration and monitoring of an individualized intervention plan based on the identified fall risk factors, personal preferences and available resources. The Control Group will be monitored once a month. Assessments (clinical data, fall risk awareness, physical and mental factors, safety at home, feet and shoes, risk and rate of falls) will be carried out at baseline, after 16 weeks of intervention and at the post-trial 6-week and 1-year follow-up. After 16 weeks of intervention, satisfaction and adherence to the intervention will also be assessed. Economic health will be evaluated for the period up to the post-trial 1-year follow-up. RESULTS No Results. CONCLUSIONS This case management program will address multifactorial assessments using validated tools and the implementation of individualized intervention plans focused on reducing fall risk factors, and may provide reliable and valuable information about the effectiveness of case management for increasing fall risk awareness and reducing fall risk in older people. CLINICALTRIAL Clinical Trial Registration: REBEC: RBR - 3t85fd

Risk perception of local stakeholders on natural hazards: implications for theory and practice

In Romania, local stakeholders' knowledge plays a role in making decisions for emergencies, supporting rescue officers in natural hazard events, coordinating, and assisting the affected populations physically and psychologically. However, despite the increasing occurrence and severity of natural hazards in the Iași metropolitan area (of north-eastern Romania), there is a lack of knowledge of local stakeholders on how to encourage the population regarding safety actions. For this reason, we interviewed 118 local stakeholders to determine their risk awareness and preparedness capacities over a set of natural hazards, in order to understand where deficiencies in knowledge, action, and trust are greatest. Results reveal substantial distinctions between different threats and among stakeholders based on their cognitive and behavioural roles in the communities. The roles of responsibility and trust are important driving factors shaping their perception and preparedness. Preparedness levels are low, and, for many, learning and preparatory actions are needed to build resilience to the negative occurrences of natural hazards. As the stakeholders' role is to direct interventions in affected areas by managing communication initiatives with the entire population of the community, there is a need to create stakeholders' networks, empowering local actors and serving as a bridge between authorities' decisions and local people, making effective risk management plans, and securing more lives and economies.