Knowledge of Health Impact of Climate Change and Practice of Preventive Measures among Students of a Nigerian Tertiary Institution

Abstract

Background: Every century has its own public health challenge. Climate change is the present century's challenge. There are various health risks arising from climate change which without mitigation actions, will tend to worsen with each passing day. Study Aim and Objective: To study the knowledge of health impact of climate change and practice of appropriate preventive measures among students of a Nigerian Tertiary Institution Methodology: A descriptive cross-sectional survey was carried out using structured questionnaires. These questionnaires were shared randomly among students from five selected departments in the college of health science and data was analyzed using SPSS Version 20.0 Results: It was found that all the students were aware of climate change and 91.7% knew about the effect of climate change on health. Significantly 78.7% believed that climate change was from man-made causes but surprisingly only 34.3% were taking actions in mitigating the effect of climate change. Conclusion: Despite the high knowledge about climate change, majority of actions taken by the students were just for convenience and to save money, not necessarily because they wanted to prevent the effects of climate change on health. Recommendation: Government and Non-governmental organizations should form advocacy clubs for young students as a platform to sensitize them on climate change and its effects. There is need to introduce rewards and sponsorships for individuals who successfully learn about climate change and ways to mitigate its effect on health.