The research team, led by Tuğba Özdemir of Istanbul Gedik University together with Tuğba Çetinol Taştemel of Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University and Gülendam Karadağ of Dokuz Eylul University, surveyed 460 healthcare professionals aged 18 years or older who were working in clinical settings. The study employed a cross-sectional, correlational design, meaning that data were collected at a single point in time and relationships between variables were examined statistically rather than manipulated experimentally. Participants completed a socio-demographic form along with three validated instruments: the Environmental Sensitivity Scale, which measures the degree to which individuals care about and feel responsibility toward environmental issues; the Global Climate Change Awareness Scale, which assesses knowledge and awareness of climate-related facts and consequences; and the Eco-Anxiety Scale, which captures the emotional dimension of climate distress, including worry, rumination, and feelings of helplessness about environmental degradation.

The analytical toolkit was deliberately rigorous. All statistical analyses were performed using SPSS 24.0, and the researchers applied a combination of descriptive statistics, Spearman correlation analysis, and multiple linear regression. Descriptive statistics established where the sample stood on each scale; Spearman correlation, a non-parametric technique suited to ordinal or non-normally distributed data, quantified the strength and direction of associations between variables; and multiple linear regression allowed the team to determine which factors independently predicted environmental sensitivity when all other variables were held constant. This layered approach matters because simple correlations can be misleading. A variable may appear related to an outcome simply because it travels with a third factor, and regression modeling is the standard method for teasing apart such entangled relationships.

The headline results were nuanced. Healthcare professionals in the sample demonstrated moderate levels of climate change awareness, moderate levels of environmental sensitivity, and moderate levels of eco-anxiety. In other words, this was neither a workforce gripped by paralyzing climate dread nor one indifferent to the crisis; it occupied a middle ground across all three psychological dimensions. But the regression analysis revealed a striking asymmetry in what actually predicted environmental sensitivity. Awareness of global climate change emerged as a significant predictor, as did being a nurse, being aged 45 years or older, and membership in an environmental organization. By contrast, the rumination sub-dimension of eco-anxiety showed only a marginal, non-significant association with environmental sensitivity, with a p-value of 0.064, just shy of the conventional 0.05 threshold for statistical significance.

This pattern carries real theoretical weight. Eco-anxiety, the chronic fear of environmental doom, has attracted enormous media attention in recent years, with some commentators suggesting that distress about the planet might be a motivating force for environmental action. The Turkish data suggest a more complicated picture among healthcare workers: emotional rumination about climate change, on its own, does not reliably translate into environmental sensitivity. What does translate is cognitive engagement, the factual awareness of what climate change is and what it does. In psychological terms, the study hints that the pathway from climate concern to pro-environmental attitudes may run through knowledge and understanding rather than through anxiety, at least in this professional population. Awareness, in this framing, functions as the cognitive scaffolding upon which environmental sensitivity is built.

The demographic predictors are equally instructive. Nurses showed significantly higher environmental sensitivity than other professional groups in the sample, a finding that resonates with the nature of nursing itself. Nurses spend more continuous time at the bedside than most other clinicians, they manage the material flows of healthcare, from single-use plastics to pharmaceutical waste, and public health nursing in particular has long framed environmental conditions as determinants of health. Age also mattered: professionals aged 45 years or older reported greater environmental sensitivity, suggesting either a cohort effect shaped by decades of accumulating environmental awareness or a developmental effect in which life experience deepens concern for the world that will be inherited by younger generations. Membership in an environmental organization was another significant predictor, which is intuitive but not trivial; affiliation with environmental groups likely reinforces sensitivity through repeated exposure to environmental information, norms, and collective action.

The methodological strengths of the study deserve attention alongside its findings. The sample of 460 clinical professionals is substantial for a single-country survey of this kind, and the use of three validated scales rather than ad hoc questions strengthens the reliability of the measurements. The researchers obtained ethical approval from the Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University Health Sciences Ethics Committee, with institutional permission from the Provincial Directorate of Health, and all participants provided written informed consent, including consent for the anonymous use and publication of their data. The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, the ethical framework governing human-subjects research, and permission to use the scales was secured from their developers. These procedural details matter because survey research on sensitive psychological states, including anxiety, depends on trust and transparency to produce credible data.

At the same time, the cross-sectional design imposes limits that the authors and readers must keep in view. Because everything was measured at one moment, the study can establish associations but not causation. It is possible that environmental sensitivity drives people to learn more about climate change, rather than awareness driving sensitivity, or that both are shaped by an unmeasured third factor such as education, personality, or political orientation. The marginal, non-significant p-value for rumination also leaves open the possibility that eco-anxiety plays a modest role that a larger sample might detect. And the sample, drawn from clinical settings in Türkiye, may not generalize to healthcare workers in countries with different climate exposures, health system structures, or cultural attitudes toward environmental issues. Replication in longitudinal designs and across regions would be the natural next step.

Why does all this matter beyond the psychology of a single profession? Because healthcare systems are themselves major contributors to climate change, and healthcare professionals are uniquely credible messengers on climate and health. If awareness, rather than anxiety, is the lever that moves environmental sensitivity in this workforce, then the policy implications point toward education and institutional support rather than alarm. The study’s authors conclude that enhancing educational efforts, institutional support, and environmental policies may strengthen healthcare professionals’ capacity to address climate-related health risks and promote environmentally responsible practices in healthcare settings. In practical terms, that could mean integrating climate and health content into medical and nursing curricula, giving hospital staff the tools to reduce the environmental footprint of care delivery, and supporting professional participation in environmental organizations. The message from this research is ultimately an optimistic one: the route to a greener healthcare workforce may run not through fear, but through understanding.

Subject of Research: Climate change awareness, eco-anxiety, and environmental sensitivity among healthcare professionals

Article Title: Healthcare professionals’ awareness of climate change and its association with eco-anxiety and environmental sensitivity: a cross-sectional study

Article References: Özdemir, T., Çetinol Taştemel, T., & Karadağ, G. (2026). Healthcare professionals’ awareness of climate change and its association with eco-anxiety and environmental sensitivity: a cross-sectional study. BMC Health Services Research. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-026-15770-x

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s12913-026-15770-x

Keywords: climate change, eco-anxiety, environmental sensitivity, healthcare professionals, nurses, cross-sectional study, climate awareness, environmental psychology, public health, health services research, Türkiye, regression analysis

The research team, led by Drini Imami of the Agricultural University of Tirana together with colleagues from the University of Prishtina, Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences, Weihenstephan-Triesdorf University of Applied Sciences and Corvinus University of Budapest, surveyed 183 farmers engaged in medicinal and aromatic plant production across Albania. Rather than simply cataloguing who had adopted which practice, the researchers applied a statistical technique known as partial least squares structural equation modeling, or PLS-SEM. This approach allows scientists to test an entire chain of hypothesized relationships simultaneously, linking farm characteristics to climate awareness, and climate awareness in turn to concrete adaptation behavior. It is a method well suited to questions where the underlying drivers, such as awareness or perceived risk, cannot be observed directly but must be inferred from multiple survey responses.

The results reveal a clear and consequential pathway. Farmers with higher levels of education and those who had acquired medicinal and aromatic plant-specific skills or training were significantly more likely to be aware of climate change and its potential consequences for their operations. That awareness, in turn, emerged as a strong predictor of adaptation. Farmers who recognized the climate threat were markedly more likely to adopt measures such as diversifying their crop portfolio, switching to certified seeds and seedlings, and adjusting the mix of plant varieties they cultivate. In statistical terms, awareness functions as a mediating variable: it translates external pressures and personal capabilities into deliberate on-farm change.

Farm size also mattered. Larger operations were more likely to implement adaptation measures, a pattern consistent with a well-documented dynamic in agricultural economics. Bigger farms typically command more land, labor and capital, and they can absorb the short-term costs and risks of trying something new, whether that means investing in certified planting material or experimenting with alternative species. Smaller holders, by contrast, often face resource constraints that make even low-cost adjustments difficult. The study’s authors point to this asymmetry as a warning sign: if adaptation is concentrated among better-endowed farms, climate change may widen existing inequalities within rural communities rather than simply imposing uniform losses.

Perceived climate impacts played a distinct role in the causal chain. Farmers who reported experiencing or observing climate-related damage, such as reduced yields or stressed plants, showed elevated awareness, and that awareness indirectly encouraged adaptation. This finding aligns with a growing body of international evidence suggesting that direct experience with climate extremes is one of the most powerful motivators of farmer response. Yet the Albanian data also imply that waiting for experience to accumulate is a risky strategy. By the time impacts are severe enough to register universally, the options for graceful adaptation may have narrowed considerably, particularly for perennial and wild-harvested species that cannot be replanted or relocated easily.

Perhaps the most striking number in the study is thirteen. Only 13 percent of the surveyed farmers reported receiving regular training related to their crop systems. For a sector that is export-oriented and ecologically delicate, this represents a substantial information and capacity gap. Medicinal and aromatic plants are not commodity grains; their market value depends heavily on quality standards, phytochemical profiles and compliance with certification requirements in destination markets. Climate change can alter essential oil content and terpene composition in these plants, meaning that both the agronomic and the commercial dimensions of production are climate-sensitive. Without structured extension services and training programs, most farmers are left to interpret a shifting environment on their own, relying on tradition and trial rather than science.

The export dimension sharpens the stakes considerably. Albania’s medicinal and aromatic plant sector supplies international buyers who demand consistent quality and traceable production. A climate-driven failure in this chain would not remain a local problem; it would ripple through value chains and into the livelihoods of the mountain households that depend on harvesting and cultivation. The study’s authors argue that strengthening extension services, improving access to farmer training, and easing resource constraints are essential for supporting adaptive land-use decisions. They call for targeted policy interventions that integrate advisory services, climate risk management, and improved access to land and finance, a package designed to enhance the resilience of both production systems and the rural livelihoods they sustain.

The Albanian case also resonates with a broader scientific conversation about medicinal plants and climate change. Researchers have documented climate-induced shifts in essential oil production and chemical composition in alpine aromatic species, and global assessments have warned that many medicinal plant species face range contractions and population declines as temperatures rise. In mountain regions from the Himalaya to the Balkans, these plants often occupy narrow ecological niches, which makes them particularly sensitive indicators of environmental change. When the farmers who cultivate or gather them lack access to climate information and adaptive resources, the risk is not only economic but also a quiet erosion of botanical knowledge and biodiversity that has accumulated over generations.

What makes the study methodologically notable is its use of structural equation modeling on a relatively modest sample, an approach that requires careful validation of the measurement instruments but yields insights that simple cross-tabulations cannot provide. By confirming that awareness mediates the relationship between education, training and adaptation, the analysis gives policymakers a concrete lever to pull. Investments in education and targeted training do not merely inform farmers; they measurably increase the likelihood of adaptive behavior. Conversely, policies that focus solely on subsidizing inputs or technologies, without building the underlying awareness and capacity, may fail to achieve durable change.

For Albania’s medicinal and aromatic plant farmers, the message of the research is ultimately one of conditional optimism. The adaptive pathway exists: awareness leads to action, and awareness can be built. But the current infrastructure supporting that pathway is thin, reaching roughly one farmer in eight with regular training. Closing that gap, the authors conclude, is not a luxury but a necessity for a sector whose products, markets and communities all sit on the front line of a changing climate. As climate pressures intensify across the Mediterranean and Balkan regions, the Albanian experience offers a replicable lesson: resilience in specialized agricultural systems begins not in the field, but in the flow of knowledge to the people who work it.

Subject of Research: Climate change awareness and adaptation strategies among medicinal and aromatic plant farmers in Albania

Article Title: Cultivating resilience: climate awareness and adaptation among Albanian medicinal and aromatic plant farmers

Article References: Imami, D., Miftari, I., Zhllima, E., van Bruggen-Wichern, J., & Darr, D. (2026). Cultivating resilience: climate awareness and adaptation among Albanian medicinal and aromatic plant farmers. Regional Environmental Change, 26(4), Article 202. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-026-02683-y

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s10113-026-02683-y

Keywords: climate change adaptation, medicinal and aromatic plants, Albania, smallholder farmers, PLS-SEM, climate awareness, agricultural extension, rural livelihoods, crop diversification, export agriculture, mountain farming, farm training