Knowledge and Attitude towards Climate Changes among a Sample of Medical Students at an Egyptian University

Abbas, Doha; Hussein, Amal Saad Eldin; Salem, Marwa Rashad; Abd El Khalik, Abeer; Thabet, Anas Nasser; Hosney, Mennatallah Said

doi:10.21608/ejcm.2025.373804.1387

Knowledge and Attitude towards Climate Changes among a Sample of Medical Students at an Egyptian University

Articles in Press

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Public Health and Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt

² Environmental and Occupational Medicine Department, Environment and Climate Change Institute, National Research Centre, Cairo, Egypt

³ Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt

10.21608/ejcm.2025.373804.1387

Abstract

Background: Climate change (CC) is a major global health threat. Medical education plays a key role in preparing future physicians to understand and address its effects. The objective was to assess knowledge and attitudes related to CC among medical students and to examine their associations with sociodemographic factors. Methods: A cross-sectional e-survey was conducted at Kasr Al-Ainy Medical School, Egypt. The questionnaire collected demographic data and evaluated CC-related knowledge and attitudes, including health impacts, mitigation, and adaptation strategies. Results: A total of 520 students were included. The mean age was 21.2 ± 2.3 years and 51.3% of the students were females. The majority of students had Egyptian nationality (88.3%), living in urban residence (76.7%), and studying their clinical curriculum (68.7%). Awareness of CC was high (90.2%), with social media (61.0%) and mass media (48.5%) being the main sources of information. Overall, 58.7% achieved good knowledge scores, and 65.0% expressed favorable attitudes. Good knowledge was significantly higher among urban residents than rural residents (54.6% versus 41.3%, p<0.001) and Egyptian students than non-Egyptian students (55.1% versus 33.7%, p<0.001). Favorable attitude was significantly higher among urban residents compared with rural residents (68.2% versus 57.0%, p=0.020). Good knowledge was significantly higher with specific sources of knowledge information, including health care providers (68.5%) and medical curriculum (62.1%). Conclusions: Most students demonstrated awareness of CC and its health consequences, informed mainly by the media. The finding underscores the need for integrating CC education into medical curricula to enhance the CC knowledge among future physicians.

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