Attitudes of dental hygiene students toward ESG management

Objectives: Sustainable management and social responsibility should be emphasized. This study investigated awareness of and attitudes toward ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) management among dental hygiene students. Methods: Written consent was obtained from 114 volunteers who expressed their willingness to participate in the study. The survey items comprised 14 questions related to ESG. The awareness of and attitudes toward ESG management were analyzed by frequency and percentage, and the correlation between the awareness of and attitudes toward ESG was analyzed using Pearson’s correlation analysis. Results: The awareness rate of ESG management was 10.5%, and the main paths of ESG awareness were school classes (25.4%) and newspapers and news (21.1%). Correlations between the implementation of environmental, social, and governance factors were significant (p<0.05). Eight-six percent of students were willing to consider ESG issues when purchasing products, and 80.7% responded positively to their willingness to consider ESG issues when applying for a job. Conclusions: This study analyzed the awareness of and attitudes toward ESG and confirmed the need for ESG management education for dental hygiene students. In the future, we plan to use this as a basis for developing curricular and extracurricular programs to improve the awareness of and positive attitudes toward ESG management among dental hygiene students.