Knowledge on Causes and Consequences of Climate Change in a Cohort of Italian Students

Abstract

Our study aims to understand how students of various backgrounds and academic fields retrieve information on Climate Change (CC) and highlights their knowledge on the main causes and consequences of CC, and on the role of healthcare workers in the fight towards this threat. A cross-sectional study was performed between January and December 2020 through an online questionnaire enrolling a total number of 480 university students. The questionnaire is divided in two sections with a total number of 20 questions. Univariable and multivariable analyses were performed to investigate the relationship between the answers and socio-demographic variables. Statistical significance was set at a p-value < 5%. More than 80% of the sample identifies the increase in Earth's temperature (95.0%), melting of ice caps (89.4%), rising of sea levels (81.8%), and the more frequent occurrence of climate-related natural disasters as major consequences of CC. Across courses of study, the frequency on how CC is addressed differs (p<0.001): students belonging to the medical field addressed the issue less frequently (31.5%) compared to humanities students (49.0%) and science and technology students (63.4%). The study shows that students of medical field are less prepared and less aware of the consequences and causes of CC than students in other faculties. Since CC will play a role in every aspect of patients' lives, barriers to health care will have to be overcome through the knowledge and skills acquired during undergraduate courses.