A significant amount of research has examined what motivates people living in fire-prone areas to mitigate their wildfire risk (i.e. engage in activities that reduce vulnerability and the effects of a wildfire on an individual’s property). However, drawing overarching conclusions from this research is difficult because of the myriad of ways researchers have measured and analysed wildfire risk mitigation. Although recommendations exist for measuring risk-mitigation activities, no research to date has based these recommendations on an examination of how different operationalisations influence subsequent interpretations of homeowner preparedness. We addressed this gap by examining how the effects of demographics and contextual factors on preparedness differ across different ways of counting the amount of vegetation management completed. We also examined how different statistical approaches influence the results. We found that measuring vegetation management as the sum of activities completed is problematic and can obfuscate important relationships. For example, age is positively related to the proportion of applicable activities completed, but not the total number. We recommend assessing which items are applicable to respondents and constructing proportional measures rather than sums. We also recommend that, given the need for maintenance of vegetation, researchers use non-binary measures that allow respondents to indicate how much work they have undertaken towards each activity.

中文翻译：

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在火灾易发地区实施房主野火风险缓解

大量研究调查了是什么促使生活在火灾易发地区的人们减轻他们的野火风险（即参与减少脆弱性和野火对个人财产影响的活动）。然而，由于研究人员测量和分析野火风险缓解的方法多种多样，因此很难从这项研究中得出总体结论。尽管存在衡量风险缓解活动的建议，但迄今为止没有研究将这些建议建立在检查不同操作如何影响随后对房主准备情况的解释的基础上。我们通过检查人口统计和背景因素对准备工作的影响在计算植被管理完成量的不同方法中有何不同来解决这一差距。我们还研究了不同的统计方法如何影响结果。我们发现，将植被管理作为已完成活动的总和来衡量是有问题的，并且会混淆重要的关系。例如，年龄与完成的适用活动的比例呈正相关，但与总数呈正相关。我们建议评估哪些项目适用于受访者并构建比例度量而不是总和。我们还建议，考虑到植被维护的需要，研究人员使用非二元度量，让受访者表明他们对每项活动进行了多少工作。例如，年龄与完成的适用活动的比例呈正相关，但与总数呈正相关。我们建议评估哪些项目适用于受访者并构建比例度量而不是总和。我们还建议，考虑到植被维护的需要，研究人员使用非二元度量，让受访者表明他们对每项活动进行了多少工作。例如，年龄与完成的适用活动的比例呈正相关，但与总数呈正相关。我们建议评估哪些项目适用于受访者并构建比例度量而不是总和。我们还建议，考虑到植被维护的需要，研究人员使用非二元度量，让受访者表明他们对每项活动进行了多少工作。