450 - Primary Care Pediatricians’ Environmental Health and Climate Change Attitudes and Experiences
Sunday, April 27, 2025
8:30am – 10:45am HST
Publication Number: 450.6353
William H. Burr, American Academy of Pediatrics, Itasca, IL, United States; Chloe Somberg, American Academy of Pediatrics, Chicago, IL, United States; Susan E. E.. Pacheco, McGovern Medical School at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Pearland, TX, United States; Lauren M. Zajac, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States; Ruth A.. Etzel, George Washington University, Washington, DC, United States
Pediatrician Surveys American Academy of Pediatrics Itasca, Illinois, United States
Background: The AAP has prioritized environmental health for many years, but with severe weather events occurring more frequently and their attendant health risks being felt more acutely by children, it is more important than ever to understand how environmental health risks and climate change affect pediatric practice. Objective: Assess US pediatricians’ environmental health and climate change attitudes and experiences. Design/Methods: The 2023 AAP Periodic Survey, a nationally representative survey of non-retired US AAP members (residents excluded), queried primary care pediatricians’ environmental health and climate change attitudes and experiences (response rate 40%, n=785). Pediatricians rated the importance of different resources in informing their environmental health and climate change knowledge (5-point Likert scale – Very important to very unimportant). Chi-square tests examined the association of pediatrician and practice characteristics with environmental health and climate change attitudes and experiences. Multivariable logistic regression examined the independent effects of the different pediatrician and practice characteristics on a) agreement that counseling on environmental health risks should be a priority and b) attitudes about effects of climate change (A great deal vs some, not too much, not at all). Results: A majority of primary care pediatricians are concerned about climate change and expect it to impact their communities and the US a great deal [Table]. A third say climate change is already affecting their practice a great deal, especially pediatricians practicing in urban areas as well as those in the West. Those in urban areas were the most likely to report experiencing the effects of climate change and expect substantial effects in the future. Seven in 10 strongly agreed or agreed that counseling on environmental health risks should be a priority, and this rate was consistent across pediatrician and practice characteristics. The significant bivariate relationships persisted in the multivariable models, except for patient population characteristics (ie, patients with financial hardship, patients covered by public insurance), which were no longer significant. Respondents rated state or local health departments and AAP professional resources as the most important environmental health resources [Figure].
Conclusion(s): A majority of primary care pediatricians think counseling on environmental health risks should be a priority. Most also believe climate change will affect both the US and their practice community a great deal in the future, though this varies by practice area and region.
