Awareness And Perception of Global Warming Among Undergraduate Medical Students in A Nigerian University.

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Increase in the emission of green house gases and the attendant climatic changes have led to the phenomenon of global warming with all its catastrophic consequences.
OBJECTIVE: To assess knowledge and perception of the concept of global warming among undergraduate medical students
METHODOLOGY: A cross sectional descriptive study was carried out among 380 undergraduate medical students who were selected by a systematic sampling method. A semi-structured, self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data on their demographic attributes and their knowledge and perception of global warming after a verbal informed consent was obtained from them.
RESULTS: All the respondents had heard of global warming with 7.1% having excellent knowledge, 45% good knowledge, 43.7% fair knowledge and 13.2% poor knowledge of global warming. Most (82.1%) had the misconception that ozone layer depletion was responsible for global warming. A majority (94%) believed the earth was actually warming up, with 73% believed they contributed to global warming. Only 16.1% perceived that global warming will affect the future generations. Though 198(52%) felt they were already taking actions to conserve energy, only 34(9.0%) would rather use public transport than buy a car in order to conserve energy.
CONCLUSION The knowledge and perception of the concept of global warming among the respondents were good. However, most confused the concept of global warming with ozone layer depletion. Continuous education on issues of global warming especially the misconceived aspects is advocated