1. Introduction
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates that the average increase in global surface temperature from 1850–1900 to 2011–2020 was 1.09 ˚C (±0.15 ˚C) for the observed period and are likely to exceed 2 ˚C above pre-industrial levels by the 2040s [
1]. Indonesia, located in the tropical region, has seen an increase in temperature in many parts of the country. The estimates of climate models indicate that Indonesia is one of the most susceptible nations to extreme heat [
2,
3]. The Indonesian Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysical Agency (BMKG) indicates that most inland regions in Indonesia are anticipated to suffer a rise in the annual average temperature of more than 1.1˚C for the period 2020–2049 compared to 1976–2005 [
4]. The Indonesian Central Bureau of Statistics’ (BPS) report on the country’s climate dynamics provides compelling evidence of a significant increase in temperature across almost all the archipelago’s regions. The study reveals a significant trend of elevated maximum temperatures in the provinces of East Nusa Tenggara (33.5°C in 2011 to 38.4°C in 2020), Riau Islands (32.6°C in 2011 to 37.5°C in 2020), and Central Sulawesi (34.1°C in 2011 to 37.4°C in 2020) [
5,
6]. This situation is alarming, considering the maximum temperature in the same region in 2012 was 32–33 ˚C.
The rise in temperature is known to have an adverse effect on human health [
7,
8]. The human body’s thermoregulatory system is responsible for regulating the exchange of heat between the body and the environment to maintain a homeostatic core temperature of 37 ˚C [
9]. This system serves as a physiological mechanism to cope with the threat of heat exposure. However, prolonged exposure to high temperature can result in heat-related illness (HRI) [
8,
9] as well as occupational injuries [
10,
11]. HRI can lead to increased medical costs, reduced work productivity, reduced quality of life, and even fatalities [
12]. Thus, climate change, particularly extreme heat, poses a significant challenge to public health and work productivity [
13,
14].
The forest plays a vital role in providing direct and indirect benefits to human livelihoods through its products and environmental services. While numerous studies have investigated the impacts of climate change on forests, such as decreased productivity and biodiversity [
15,
16], there has been a lack of in-depth analysis concerning the risk of heat exposure to the health of forestry workers, despite the fact that these outdoor workers are highly vulnerable to health problems and work-related injuries caused by prolonged exposure to extreme heat due to their predominantly outdoor activities [
13,
17]. This represents a significant gap in the literature, as forestry workers are at heightened risk due to their extended periods of outdoor work in hot and humid environments. Thus, it is critical to recognize that forestry workers face similar challenges with heat exposure, although studies on this topic are limited.
This research aims to investigate the association between heat-related knowledge, risk perception, and heat-exposure precautionary behavior among Indonesian forestry workers. According to the health belief model (HBM) [
18,
19], modifying precautionary behavior is crucial for the development of HRI prevention and promotion programs. The HBM theory places risk perceptions as one of the triggers for precautionary behavior [
20]. Specifically, regarding risk perception related to heat, Yovi et al. [
21] found that forestry workers often exhibit a high level of risk acceptance. They view the health risk connected with exposure to a hot environment as a natural consequence that must be accepted rather than a topic worth discussing. This risk acceptance attitude is suspected to potentially influence precautionary behavior, as seen in non-delayed risk events [
22]. Additionally, while other factor may come into play, knowledge is the critical element for the successful design of health promotion and prevention programs [
23,
24]. Hence, workers must understand the risk they face and be aware of the appropriate and necessary preventive measures they need to take [
10].
The findings of this study have practical implications for the development of effective heat illness prevention initiatives among forestry workers in Indonesia. Specifically, the study highlights the importance of knowledge and risk perception in promoting precautionary behavior and underscores the need for targeted strategies to address the unique vulnerabilities of forestry workers.
4. Discussion
This research confirmed that knowledge has an immediate and significant impact on individuals’ attitudes toward risk and serves as a robust predictor that promotes precautionary behavior. These findings are consistent with previous research conducted by Beckmann et al. [
41] who found a significant association between knowledge scores of urban citizens in Germany and heat risk perceptions. Additionally, a study on the COVID-19 outbreak suggest that individuals with higher levels of knowledge were more likely to adopt precautionary behavior [
42].
We provide further evidence that, in slow-onset disasters, individuals’ perceptions of hazards play a crucial role in directly affecting precautionary behavior. This finding is in line with previous health studies [
43,
44] and provides additional evidence to support the hypothesis that an individual’s perception of risk mediates the relationship between knowledge and preventative behavior. As individual’s knowledge increases, their concern about the risk also intensifies, motivating them to adopt a preventative measure [
45]. However, this finding should be interpreted with care as risk perceptions are a required but not always sufficient prerequisite for engaging in precautionary behavior. Higher risk perceptions may only predict precautionary behavior when people believe that effective preventive actions are accessible and are confident in their ability to engage in such actions [
46].
Risk perception depends on a multitude of interrelated factors, which can be broadly categorized into two categories: fear (the dread risk factor) and familiarity (the unknown risk factor) [
40]. “Dread” serves as a risk perception modulator that accurately reflects how risk is assessed; higher scores on the “dread” factor indicate greater perceived risk [
40];. This study revealed that “dread” was the only risk perception modulator that significantly, albeit weakly (O = 0.102, p = 0.000), mediated the relationship between knowledge and adoption of precautionary behavior. Moreover, when comparing the dread risk factors (controllability, dread, and severity) to the unknown risk factor (observability), this study confirmed that dread had a functional role in exacerbating perceived risk and served as a predictor of positive behavior change. These findings are consistent with Harper et al. [
47] and Ning et al. [
42], who suggest that fear is a valuable function and predictor of positive behavior change. Thus, despite the unknown risk component not mediating the relationship between knowledge and precautionary behavior, this does not contradict the conclusion that risk perception can mediate this relationship.
The moderation analysis of this study revealed that neither age nor gender moderated the association between knowledge, risk perception, and precautionary behavior, which is consistent with the findings of Iorfa et al. [
48]. However, previous studies have shown that women tend to have higher risk awareness compared to men [
21,
49] and a more likely to perceive health-related risk. A study in Italy found that women tend to answer a question regarding heat as a risk factor for depression and anxiety compared to men [
50]. This heightened risk awareness in women may be influenced by affect heuristics that shape risk judgement [
51,
52,
53]. The unbalanced gender ratio between male and female participants (1:2) in this study may contribute to possible bias in the findings.
The association between knowledge and precautionary behavior was significantly moderated negatively by the participant groups, reflecting worker characteristics and employment. Despite having higher knowledge level, the forestry workers group was less likely than the farmers to agree on precautionary behavior. This finding may be attributed to the fact that forestry work, mainly manual labor, is associated with significant occupational health and even safety problems [
54,
55]. Forestry workers, who are accustomed to direct contact with various sources of hazards that have immediate effects, have reported higher levels of fear and severity in incidents [
56,
57].
Occupational safety and health (OSH) problems caused by falling trees or saws tend to happen quickly and suddenly or are considered a “sudden disaster” [
58]. In contrast, health problems caused by heat exposure tend to be delayed, noted as a “slow-onset disaster” [
57,
59,
60]. Slow-onset catastrophes have effects that take years to appear and are typically identified long after the first sign of danger [
61]. Because the impacts are often observed over several years and decades rather than in hours or days, people tend to eventually accept risk as a natural occurrence [
60]. It is important to note that while workplace heat exposure could affect workers’ health, well-being, and productivity, as well as social and economic factors on a larger scale [
8,
11,
62], acclimatization is possible [
63]. However, despite acclimatization, workers in this position have little choice but to continue working to earn their livelihoods, making it difficult to mitigate heat exposure hazards.
Forestry workers are particularly susceptible to heat exposure due to the nature of their work, but they still perceive heat exposure as a minor issue. As a result, promoting precautionary behavior towards heat exposure will be more complex and intense for forestry workers compared to farmer. Forestry workers are particularly susceptible to heat exposure due to the nature of their work, but they still perceive heat exposure as a minor issue. Therefore, it is imperative to implement effectives strategies and techniques to manage heat exposure hazards in the forestry industry to ensure workers’ safety and well-being.
The moderation effect of participant groups revealed in this study strengthens the notion that negative experiences can be a valuable source of “knowledge” in relation to precautionary behavior. The severity of the personal consequences experienced in the past may be more influential than the “experiences” themselves in shaping an individual’s propensity to take preventative measures [
63]. This finding is consistent with the research of Seimetz et al. [
64], which noted that the perception of vulnerability to a specific risk, a positive belief (the distribution of benefits is greater than the risk), confidence in one’s abilities to perform the behavior, and a commitment to performing the precautionary behavior all play a role in determining whether a person will change their behavior.
Recommendation. In the context of outdoor workers in Indonesia, improving precautionary behavior necessitates an emphasis on knowledge acquisition. The importance of knowledge stems from its direct correlation with risk perception and the tendency to engage in precaution measures. By possessing a thorough understanding of potential hazards associated with severe heat exposure, workers can accurately identify the risks emerge from severe heat exposure in their workplace, leading to a heightened sense of awareness and engagement in preventive action.
Further, we concur with Slovic’s notion that “fear” best describes how one feels upon realizing their exposure to a particular risk [
40]. Employing “fear language” has the potential to benefit Indonesian forest workers who have a high tolerance for risk and take pride in working in hazardous environments [
21]. However, the use of fear-based language must be approached with caution and tailored to the audience’s characteristics and preferences [
65].
Heat-related information must be enhanced to improve precautionary behavior and prevent the detrimental effects of heat exposure on occupational health and well-being. Beckmann and Hiete [
62] imply that communication is instrumental in fostering a sense of risk, and another study in UK suggests that heat protection recommendations increase intention to implement protective behavior[
66]. This information must be conveyed to the workers using an approach tailored to their characteristics and preferences, as risk communication strategies must account for individual, societal, and cultural factors to be effective [
67]. In addition to content, messenger, and delivery channels, another aspect that needs to be considered in delivering information to improve knowledge is repetition. Repeatedly providing information has been proven to effectively increase the knowledge of forestry workers, especially those at the labour and field operator levels [
68].
However, the efforts to exert precautionary behavior among workers to mitigate the impact of working in hot environment must be consistently maintained. According to Duckworth and Gross [
69] the process is akin to climbing stairs: requiring consistent effort and the ability to continue or turn around on the stairway; otherwise, one will not reach his destination. We also recommend that programs be action-oriented rather than merely administrative to achieve the desire outcomes.
Author Contributions
Conceptualization, E.Y.Y. and A.N.; methodology, E.Y.Y., A.N., and B.K.; validation, E.Y.Y.; formal analysis, E.Y.Y. and B.K.; investigation, E.Y.Y.; data curation, E.Y.Y. and B.K.; writing—original draft preparation, E.Y.Y. and A.N.; writing—review and editing, E.Y.Y., A.N., and B.K.; visualization, E.Y.Y., A.N., and B.K.; supervision, E.Y.Y.; project administration, E.Y.Y. and A.N.; funding acquisition, E.Y.Y. and A.N. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.