Evaluating the Level of Environmental Behaviors among Students at Jahrom University of Medical Sciences, 2016-2017

Environmental behavior helps to minimize environmental damage and increase the environmental benefits and advantages. The present study aimed to determine the environmental behaviors of students in Jahrom University of Medical Sciences. This cross-sectional study was conducted on 285 students in the academic year 2016-2017 by the stratified sampling method. The data collection tool was a standard questionnaire. The data were analyzed by SPSS 16 software and using descriptive statistics, independent t-test, one way ANOVA, and Pearson correlation coefficient at significant level of α = 0.05. The study participants included 66.3% female and 33.3% male with an average age of 21.41 ± 20.40 years. Among the students, 36.14% had a weak environmental knowledge, 53.34% intermediate knowledge and 10.52% high level of environmental knowledge respectively. The largest source of environmental information was television, internet, and social networks. The students’ knowledge, attitude, and behavior was at a moderately upward level and there was a significant difference between girls and boys regarding environmental behaviors (p < 0.05). There was a weak significant correlation between environmental attitudes and environmental behaviors (r = 0.39)
(p < 0.001). However, there was no significant correlation between environmental knowledge and environmental behavior (r = 0.69, p = 0.25). The environmental behavior of students in Jahrom University of Medical Sciences was relatively good, among which energy consumption behavior was the highest and waste recycling behavior was the lowest. Therefore, it can be concluded that having environmental knowledge cannot be a guarantee of environmental behavior.