Awareness and knowledge about global warming among the school students of south India

Abstract

Introduction: Global warming means average increase in the earth’s temperature and is considered as a major health issue of the 21st century. Objectives: To find out the awareness and knowledge about global warming among the school students. Materials and Methods: Self administered questionnaire was used to collect information from 400 randomly selected school children of three different medium. Statistical analyses were performed with the chi-square and Fisher’s exact test. Ethical clearance, informed consent and assent were obtained. Results: More than three quarters (83.75%) of the participants stated cardiovascular and respiratory problem to be the major health issue due to global warming. Less than half (45.75%) participants ranked green house gases to be the major cause for global warming. Majority of the students (57.5%) were willing to walk or cycle instead of driving and only (12%) students were willing to plant trees for combating global warming. Male and female students exhibited significant difference in respect of their awareness and knowledge towards global warming (p<0.05). Conclusion: Periodic health education regarding global warming is still needed to increase awareness and knowledge among the school students.

Keywords

• Global Warming
• Awareness
• Green House gases
• Knowledge
• School Students