Effectiveness of Educational Intervention on Knowledge and Practice among Bio-Medical Waste Handlers

Aim of study was to improve environmental sanitation, reduce the risk of infectious and toxic waste to the biomedical waste handlers and the community. Objectives: To assess the status of knowledge and practice among bio-medical waste handlers regarding disposal of biomedical waste before and after educational intervention, and to determine the association of knowledge and practice score with selected sociodemograpic variables. Material & methods: A before and after interventional study was carried out on 187 biomedical waste handlers. Results: There were 21(51.2%) female biomedical waste handlers above the age of 45 as compared to 6(14.6%) between 25 to 34years. Majority175 (93.6%) of the waste handlers were educated and had education from 1stto 12th standard. The mean pre training score was 9.3.with a S.D. Of 3.9, which improved to 20.0 with SD of 2.4.The mean pre training practice score was 7.8 with a S.D 3.8, which improved to 21.6 with a S.D. of 3.8 Initially there were 110(58.8%).workers in the poor category who all improved after educational intervention majority were 148(79.1%) in excellent category of knowledge after training. Initially there were 157(83.9%) in the poor category practice score, 83(44.3%) in excellent category of practices after educational intervention. Conclusion -Area wise effectiveness of educational intervention has shown an improvement in proportion of workers answering questions related to knowledge correctly. The percentage improvement has ranged from 6.4% to 78.1%. In all except two areas there has been improvement in proportion of biomedical waste handlers practicing them correctly.