AIMS To explore how medical students’ knowledge, views and

1. Climate change – knowledge, views and opinions of medical students Ricardo De Sousa Peixoto, William Regan, Hannah Bakewell, Esther Jackson, Sarah Owen, Frances Griffiths Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick The ‘Green Wing’ is an environmental society based at Warwick Medical School. Although we inherently have an interest in this area, we trained and designed focus group questions to be as neutral and non-leading as possible (see questions below): • What can doctors do? • The role of doctors • The role of the doctor as a role model was highlighted by the students “People look up to healthcare professionals (...) so if you live in a village and if you see your local GP cycling to work (...)” • There was disagreement about talking of climate change in consultations. Whilst some students advocated encouraging patients taking exercise because it benefited environment and health, others were more sceptical • “We don’t encourage our patients to go out and smile and go and help their neighbours. That’s just not part of our role.” • 4.2 - Feeling powerless about climate change • The medical students talked a lot about feelings of powerlessness • “The more I see it in the news the more unempowered I feel personally” • “My house is a micro-cosmos to the rest of the world, I keep trying but nobody else bothers” AIMS To explore how medical students’ knowledge, views and opinions about climate change and what action they can take. • RESULTS • Is climate change happening? • On validity of evidence • There was a split between medical students. Whilst some believed that the evidence was clear, others were not so convinced • “It’s very difficult to read out what is fact and what is just pure sensationalism” • On consensus of climate change • The groups felt that the priority was to achieve an international consensus on climate change • “An international collaboration with targets and making sure that we lead by example” • How can we change it? • The need for policy change • Generally the groups felt that policy was important to achieve targets • “I still think that policy is worth more than individual contribution” • “There must be more doctors involved in policy making” • Financial incentives • The medical students felt that the only way to achieve a change was by the distribution of incentives • “You need a bit of carrot on a stick” • What is the impact of the NHS? • Is there a link to health? • Most people thought that there was some link between climate change and health but it was difficult to know how • Students thought that the NHS had an impact on the country’s carbon footprint • “It’s just the scale of the NHS“ • INTRODUCTION • Climate change is now recognised as the ‘biggest public health threat of the 21st century’ (1) with direct and indirect effects: • direct effects include increasing morbidity and mortality from physical effects (2). • indirect effects include mass environmental displacement and conflict resulting from resource scarcity (1). • Recent calls from leading medical bodies highlight healthcare profession’s role in advocating and acting on climate change (3,4). This study explores the current views of healthcare professionals on the issue and whether there is a drive to change among this group? We focus on the perspectives of medical students toward climate change and their involvement. CONCLUSION Medical students were still querying the validity of concern about climate change. An international consensus is important. Medical students felt powerless to change the present situation. There was a need for policies enforcing regulations. Some of these policies could include financial incentives. Some medical students were not convinced that there was a link between climate change and health. There was a split of opinion in the groups as to whether doctors should include advice related to climate change in normal consultations. Some students thought that the authority of a doctor would be beneficial, but others thought it was not appropriate. METHODS Four focus groups planned (two undertaken and recruitment underway for two groups from new cohort). One focus group was volunteers and the others students attending a research course. Prompts used in Focus Group 1) What you know about climate change? 2) Has climate change relevance to global health? 3) As health professionals you have some interest in the health of others- is there a role for health professionals in relation to climate change? What might this be? 4) What is your personal role? Questions for nominal group technique 1) Write down what needs to change for there to be more action internationally in relation to climate change. 2) Write down what you would need to change in your way of life to contribute to tackling climate change 3) How do these things compare with what you are doing and why? What would make you change? • Literature review • To compare with previous studies on attitudes of health-care professionals on climate change, we performed a literature search. We used the databases: Medline, ASSIA & Web of Knowledge. Search terms: • ‘views’ or ‘opinions’ or ‘perspectives’ and • 2) ‘medic*’ or ‘health-care professionals’ • and • 3) ‘climate* change’ or ‘global warming’ or ‘greenhouse effect’ • We found a number of studies of public opinion but no articles specifically about healthcare professionals. Yet the influence of doctors on the public may be important, as doctors are one of groups most likely to be trusted to tell the truth about climate change (5). • Initial analysis • We present initial analysis of the first two focus groups References 1) Lancet and University College London Institute for Global Health Commission. Managing the health effects of climate change. Lancet 2009; 373: 1693–733 2) International Commission on Climate Change. Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report. November 2007. 3) Victor Lim et al. Politicians must heed health effects of climate change. The Lancet, Volume 374, Issue 9694, Page 973 4) Victor Lim et al. Politicians must heed health effects of climate change. BMJ 2009;339:b3672 5) Lorenzoni, I & Pidgeon, N. Public views on climate change: European & USA perspectives. Climatic Change (2006) 77: 73–95