Teaching Climate and Health in Preventive Medicine Residency Programs: A Survey of Program Directors
Marian R Passannante1, Shaun Shahani2, Michael Gochfeld3
1is Professor Emeritus, Department of Medicine, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Newark, New Jersey, USA, and Professor Emeritus, Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Rutgers School of Public Health, Piscataway, New Jersey, USA.
Preventive medicine residency programs are increasingly teaching climate and health topics, but formal curricula are rare. Most programs expressed interest in developing shared educational resources for climate change and health.
Area of Science:
- Public Health
- Environmental Medicine
- Medical Education
Background:
- Climate change, pollution, and environmental damage pose urgent public health risks.
- Medical school curricula are expanding, yet specific guidance for residency education on climate and health is limited.
- Only pediatrics has established formal guidance for residency training in climate and health.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess the current teaching of climate and health issues in preventive medicine residency programs.
- To survey program directors in public health and preventive medicine (PHPM), occupational and environmental medicine (OEM), and aerospace medicine (AM).
Main Methods:
- An online, 9-question confidential survey was distributed to program directors via Listservs from January to March 2024.
- Survey questions were developed with input from a climate health expert.
- Response data were analyzed using summary statistics and statistical tests (Fisher's Exact, Kruskal-Wallis, Wilcoxon).
Main Results:
- A 49.3% response rate was achieved across 35 out of 71 preventive medicine residency programs.
- Only 5.9% of programs (2 out of 35) reported having a formal curriculum for climate and health topics.
- OEM and AM programs were more likely to cover extreme weather event impacts; lectures and health department rotations were common teaching methods.
Conclusions:
- Most surveyed preventive medicine residency programs incorporate climate and health topics into their training.
- A significant gap exists in formal curriculum development, with only two programs reporting a structured curriculum.
- A majority of respondents (67.6%) are interested in collaborating on shared curriculum development.
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