Determination of the awareness levels of midwifery students studying in different regions of Turkey on sustainable development

Background: Sustainable development is a keyconcept shaping the future in economic, environmental,and social dimensions. It is essential for healthcareprofessionals to be aware of this issue. Midwifery,directly impacting individual and public health, plays arole in achieving sustainable development goals. Thisstudy aims to assess the awareness levels of midwiferystudents in different regions of Turkey regardingsustainable development, identify educational gaps,and propose improvements.Methods: This cross-sectional analytical studywas conducted with 404 midwifery students fromtwo universities in Turkey during the 2024-2025academic year. Data were collected using a DescriptiveInformation Form and the Sustainable DevelopmentAwareness Scale. Statistical analyses were performedusing SPSS 25.0, and normality was tested with theShapiro-Wilk test. Descriptive statistics includedfrequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation. Ap-value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant.Results: The average age of participants was 21.24±2.85years. While 84.4% had heard of sustainability, 92.1%had not received formal education on the topic.Additionally, 66.1% were unaware of the sustainabledevelopment goals, yet 81.2% believed midwiferycontributes to achieving them. The total scale scoreaverage was 152.14±20.54. Higher awareness wasobserved among first-year students, those familiarwith sustainability, and those whose families workedin the service sector (p<0.005).Conclusions: Midwifery students demonstratedabove-average awareness of sustainable development.However, those exposed to sustainability educationor familiar with the concept had significantly higherawareness. These findings emphasize the need tointegrate sustainable development topics into midwiferycurricula and develop educational programs to enhanceawareness.