Factors influencing medical students’ knowledge and attitudes toward climate change: A cross-sectional study

PLOS One | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0330875 October 10, 2025 1 / 12 OPEN ACCESS Citation: Alsoud LO, Alefishat E, Al Hageh C, Alkhaaldi SMI, Jin E, Al Fahim M, et al. (2025) Factors influencing medical students' knowledge and attitudes toward climate change: A cross-sectional study. PLoS One 20(10): e0330875. https://doi.org/10.1371/ journal.pone.0330875 Editor: RAMYA KUNDAYI RAVI, RAK Medical and Health Sciences University, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES Received: March 22, 2025 Accepted: August 6, 2025 Published: October 10, 2025 Copyright: © 2025 Alsoud et al . This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Data availability statement: All of the data is available in the manuscript or supplementary material. Funding: The author(s) received no specific funding for this work. RESEARCH ARTICLE Factors influencing medical students’ knowledge and attitudes toward climate change: A cross-sectional study Leen Oyoun Alsoud1, Eman Alefishat 1,2,3*, Cynthia Al Hageh4, Saif M I Alkhaaldi 1, Ethan Jin5, Maha Al Fahim6, Rasha Buhumaid 7, Dima Abdelmannan8, Halah Ibrahim 1 1 Department of Medical Sciences, Khalifa University College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, 2 Department of Biopharmaceutics and Clinical Pharmacy, School of Pharmacy, The University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan, 3 Center for Biotechnology, Khalifa University

of Science and Technology, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, 4 Department of Public Health, Khalifa University College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, 5 Boston University, Massachusetts, United States of America, 6 Department of Medical Affairs, Sheikh Khalifa Medical City, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, 7 Department of Emergency Medicine, College of Medicine, Mohammed Bin Rashed University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Dubai Health, United Arab Emirates, 8 Department of Endocrinology, College of Medicine, Mohammed Bin Rashed University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Dubai Health, United Arab Emirates * Eman.alefishat@ku.ac.ae Abstract Introduction Climate change is one of the biggest environmental challenges of the 21st century. Physicians are at the forefront of recognizing, preventing, and treating climate- induced health issues. This study aims to assess attitudes, education, and knowl- edge of recent medical graduates regarding climate change and its health impacts, and to identify factors influencing these domains. Materials & methods A cross-sectional web-based survey of recently graduated medical students was conducted at two large academic medical centers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Mean composite Likert scales were calculated. Linear regression models were uti- lized to study predictors of knowledge and attitude. Results Of 458 applicants to residency programs, 311 completed the survey (67.9% response rate). Most participants were female (n=206, 66.2%), aged 25 to 30 years (n=183,

58.8%), and attended medical schools in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region (n=209, 67.2%). The median knowledge score was 9 out of 14 (64.3%), with an IQR of 7 to 10. The mean attitude score was 50 out of 70 (71.4%), with an IQR of 44 to 54. These results suggest moderate levels of knowledge and generally positive