Abstract
BACKGROUND: Understanding the psychological distance (PD) of health professionals toward climate change is essential to promote effective climate action and informed health policy. While climate change poses a global health threat requiring urgent collaboration, limited cross-national research exists on health professionals' perspectives, particularly on how they perceive PD in relation to climate change. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to provide initial insights into how health professionals perceive climate change across different countries, focusing on key factors influencing PD, including personal experiences, uncertainty, perceptions, information environments, global interconnectedness, and climate-resilient infrastructure. METHODS: This research employed an exploratory mixed-methods approach, combining descriptive surveys and in-depth semi-structured interviews with 18 early-to-mid-career health professionals from 12 countries. This design facilitated a nuanced exploration of the dimensions of PD-temporal, spatial, social, and uncertainty-related-by integrating quantitative data with qualitative insights to uncover emerging trends and hypotheses. RESULTS: Findings reveal diverse perceptions of PD among health professionals, shaped by contextual factors such as exposure to extreme weather, information environments, and infrastructure development. These results challenge the oversimplified view that professionals in developing countries consistently perceive climate change impacts as more distant, underscoring the need for localized understandings of PD. CONCLUSION: Assessing PD requires consideration of its diverse dimensions to inform effective climate-related behaviors and interventions. Tailored communication strategies reflecting unique national and regional contexts are essential to engage health professionals, enabling them to drive climate discourse and policy advocacy. This study highlights the potential of the early-to-mid-career health professionals in bridging the gap between public awareness and climate action. Their unique position enables them to drive long-term climate adaptation and policy implementation, fostering both global and localized solutions to climate challenges.