Development and evaluation of educational activities for medical students and pediatricians about climate and health

The medical profession is starting to incorporate climate change and health into the education for physicians. Increased awareness of the health impacts of a warming planet has made this an important topic to teach pediatricians and medical students; however, most have no previous background in environmental health.

We developed didactic lectures on climate change and health customized for medical students and pediatricians that included clinical vignettes on climate-related health topics. Topics included the health effects of flooding, heat, poor air quality, and changes in insect vector distribution. Lectures were presented to 1st year medical students during a class regarding social influences on health and to pediatricians at a national meeting. An anonymous, post-presentation questionnaire was administered online, accessible to attendees through a QR code displayed at the end of the lecture. It assessed knowledge and perspectives regarding climate change and health, and the attendees' rating of the effectiveness of the presentation.

There were 81 (47% of 172 attendees) first year medical students and 13 (26% of 50 attendees) pediatricians who completed the questionnaire. From the questions regarding the climate and health knowledge assessment, the medical students scored 95.1% correct overall and the pediatricians scored 63.5% correct overall (p < 0.01). For assessing perspectives regarding climate change, we used the previously validated Global Warming's Six Americas audience segmentation (Six Americas Super Short Survey). 93.6% of medical students and 92.3% of physicians were either "Alarmed" or "Concerned" about climate change. Both students and pediatricians reported satisfaction with the session overall, 8.9/10 and 8.2/10, respectively.

Both medical students and pediatricians reported high levels of concern about climate change. Knowledge regarding climate change and health was lower overall for pediatricians compared with medical students. To address knowledge gaps, future climate change and health education should be tailored to the learning needs and styles of practicing pediatricians.