Knowledge, Perceptions, and Attitudes Towards Climate Change and its Health Impacts among Medical Students in Egypt: A Multi-Institutional Cross-Sectional Study

Background: Healthcare providers are the first line of defense against the health threats of climate change. This study aimed to assess the knowledge, perceptions, and attitudes of medical students in Egypt towards climate change and its associated health impacts. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among medical students from five universities. An online questionnaire was used to assess the students’ understanding of climate change and its health impacts. Results: A total of 895 medical students with a median age of 21 years were included. Approximately 51.1% were males and 64.5% resided in urban areas. Over half of the participants (55.1%) reported the inclusion of climate change health impacts in their curriculum. Two-thirds of the participants (66.5%) attributed climate change to human activities, and that climate change has a negative impact on human health (63.4%). Climate change knowledge, perceptions, and health impacts had mean scores of 2.39 ± 1.09 (out of 4), 30.9 ± 4.8 (out of 45), and 8.54 ± 2.98 (out of 12), respectively. The most acknowledged health problem as an impact of climate change was air-quality-related illnesses, while the least was mental health illnesses. Nonetheless, two-thirds of participants (66.7%) agreed that climate change health impacts should be included in the curriculum. Conclusions: This study reveals that Egyptian medical students perceive climate change as a significant health threat but have knowledge gaps concerning its diverse health impacts. Students were eager to increase their knowledge of climate change and accepted its integration into medical curricula.