PERCEPTION AND PRACTICES OF HOUSEHOLD WASTE MANAGEMENT AMONG MEDICAL AND ALLIED GRADUATE STUDENTS

Introduction: Household waste management is one of the most important environmental and public health issue. In Pakistan like many developing countries house hold waste management remains a neglected area which leads to high burden of communicable diseases as well as creates environmental problems. Ineffective and inefficient household management caused by unplanned urbanization, unawareness of the community about waste management, low literacy rate etc. Objective: The objective of the study was to assess the knowledge of medical and allied students as well as to compare this knowledge of these students. Material and Methods: Study was a cross sectional study carried out at ISRA University. Sample size was 120 including medical and Allied sciences. Inclusion criteria was all eligible students giving consent for participation in the study. Data was analyzed by descriptive statistics and Chi squire was applied with p value < 0.05 was considered significant. Informed consent sought from participants and ethical approval taken from ethical committee of university. Result: Among the sample of 120 students included in the study, the mean age of the participants was 20 years with standard deviation of 1.2 years. Out of these students, 27.8% were male and 67.2% were female. Sample included 50.9% MBBS students, 24(20.7%) Physiotherapy students and 23.3% of nursing students. Seventy-eight (65%) students belong to urban areas and 42(35%) belonged to rural areas. Practice of waste disposal among students was assessed and it revealed that 47(40.5%) throw their house hold waste in nearby container, 33(20(17.2%) told that house hold waste of their house is being thrown in the street and 10(8.6%) use other methods of disposal of waste. Practices of storage of waste was assessed and result revealed that 51(17.5%),27(17.5%) used card board boxes for storage of house hold waste,27(22.5%) bins or drums for storage of waste and remaining 21(17.5%) used other means for storage of waste. While assessing practice of separation of waste, 45 (37.5%) were practicing separation of waste and majority 75, (62.5%) were not separating household waste. Conclusion: Perception and practice of the house hold waste management was not satisfactory among students of this medical college, which depicts the poor condition of waste management both in rural and urban areas. There was a significant difference in knowledge of mbbs student comparison with nursing and physiotherapy students. Keywords: Household, MBBS, waste managent, environmental, public health