The state of climate-health in medical education in India – A pilot study

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Introduction: Climate change and its impacts undeniably have become one of the most important issues of our time. With the World Health Organization (WHO) estimating nearly 23% of global disease being attributable to environmental factors, it becomes increasingly imperative for future health professionals to be climate conscious with a high level of climate-health literacy to effectively mitigate any potential catastrophes. Methods: Using standardized surveys, this paper sought to assess the gap in current medical education, regarding the inclusion of climate change and its impact on health in the curriculum among different medical schools [response rate 78%, 424/542] in India. This study also evaluated the extent and intensity of the climate curriculum among universities which have an existing program [24%, 134/542], including the methodologies used to deliver it. Results: While we found most universities fail to teach students about climate change and its impacts on health, medical students show a keen interest in advocating for climate change along with a profound interest for it to be added to the already exhaustive curriculum in India. Conclusions: Our findings illustrate the importance of the need to develop a climate health curriculum that should build current, detailed, evidence based knowledge of climate-health impacts for future doctors.

Keywords

• Climate Change
• Climate-Health
• Health Education
• Medical education
• Curriculum