Perceptions of medical students regarding dimensions of environmental wellness

Objective: to explore the status of awareness on environmental wellness in medical students of karachi. methods: the cross-sectional questionnaire-based survey was carried out at bahria university medical & dental college,karachi,from january 2009 to july 2013,and comprised randomly selected medical students. the response options were; never,sometimes,mostly and always (numbered 0-4) and these were analysed in terms of frequency,proportion and percentages by predictive analysis software version 18. results: out of 800 questionnaires distributed,736(92%) were received fully completed. there were 210(28.5%) male and 526(71.5%) female respondents,with a male-to-female ratio of 1:2.5. female medical students were more serious in taking care of their environment tasks (p<0.0001). they knew their responsibility to preserve environment and consciously tried to conserve energy more than the male students (p=0.034). the proportions of admitting disposal of garbage in dustbins was found more in females than males (p<0.0005). though 486(66%) participants were interested in knowing about environmental problems,females tended to be more in liking greenery in their place of residence (p<0.0005) and lived in harmony with nature and universe (p<0.001). conclusion: medical students were aware of the concept of environmental wellness,but female medical students had a better perception and were a step ahead in its realisation. © 2016,pakistan medical association. all rights reserved.