Climate Change and Health Training Needs in Central European Mountain Regions: Cross-Country Survey

Climate change poses growing health risks in mountainous regions, where populations face increased exposure to extreme events, geographic isolation, and limited healthcare access. Strengthening the health workforce through targeted education is essential for resilience. Within the EU-funded MOUNTADAPT project, this study compares climate–health training needs across four Central European sites (AT: Austria, FR: France, RO: Romania, SI: Slovenia) to inform capacity-building.

A cross-sectional online survey was conducted among healthcare professionals (Nov 2024–Mar 2025). The 42-item questionnaire assessed four domains: feelings, knowledge, training priorities, and training mode. Most items used ordinal scales (1 to 3-6). Between-country comparisons were based on descriptive statistics, Kruskal-Wallis test (mean ranges, min–max, shown when p < 0.05), and Spearman correlations (rs). A total of 1530 respondents participated (AT: 453; FR: 644; RO: 333; SI: 100). In the feelings domain, all countries reported high concern about climate–health impacts (3.7–4.8/6; RO vs FR), moderate responsibility (3.0–3.6/5; RO vs AT) and training uptake intention (3.5–3.7/5; RO, SL, FR vs AT), and low perceived community awareness (2.3–2.8/5; SI vs AT). Regarding knowledge, perceived severity of the impact of climate-related events correlated with knowledge levels (rs: 0.21–0.96; FR vs RO); high-impact/low-knowledge events emerged as priority training gaps. Training priorities were consistent across countries, led by basic climate-health information, disaster medicine, and clinical competencies for climate change management (2.5/4). Training mode preferences included flexible online or hybrid formats (55.5–79.2%; AT vs RO), with engagement limited to ≤ 2 hours/week. Cross-country variation highlights the need for coordinated yet context-adaptive educational strategies. High concern and limited training access (up to 80% in RO/SI vs 28.7% in AT) underscores the need for action.

Key messages

• Addressing training needs is essential to strengthen climate-resilient healthcare in vulnerable mountain settings.

• Coordinated action on climate change and health education is needed to reduce cross-country disparities.