Knowledge, perceptions and practices of medical students towards climate change and global warming: A cross sectional study

CONTEXT: Climate change is the biggest global health threat and also the greatest health opportunity of the 21(st) century. Five warmest years among the last 140 years occurred between 2015 and 2019. Limited information is available regarding the knowledge and practices of medical students towards climate change, especially in India. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in two medical colleges of Karimnagar city from January 2021 to July 2021 involving MBBS and Post-graduate students as study participants. METHODS AND MATERIAL: 903 undergraduate and post-graduate medical students who consented for the study were included. A pre-structured questionnaire was used. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: Data is presented in frequencies and proportions with 95% confidence interval and Chi-square test is used as test of significance. RESULTS: Poor knowledge regarding Sustainable Developmental Goal for climate action, Organisations dealing climate change and Government actions towards climate change were observed among study participants. Cardiovascular and respiratory diseases (84%) were answered as the major health impacts of climate change. Majority (97.4%) of the participants agreed that ‘human actions are also the cause for global warming’. Environment-friendly practices were observed significantly high among participants with adequate knowledge. Major (72%) source of learning about climate change was via internet. CONCLUSIONS: Our study found that major proportion of participants doesn’t have environment-friendly practices. However, the participants with adequate knowledge about climate change were observed to have more eco-friendly practices compared to participants with inadequate knowledge.