Deborah Gonmei, Namita Shanbhag, Manjunath P Puranik

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Developments and growing number of health care systems increases the generation of Biomedical Waste (BMW). Adequate knowledge about the biomedical waste with the positive attitude and proper management can curtail the risk and hazard to the health personnel and the environment. Objective: To assess the knowledge, attitude and practices of dental postgraduate students regarding biomedical waste management in Bengaluru. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 250 dental postgraduate students using a validated questionnaire in Bengaluru. The questionnaire comprised 35 questions in English with 5 general questions and 10 in each domain (knowledge, attitude and practice). Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Post hoc were used. A p-value <0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Results: The proportions of study participants scoring knowledge questions correctly ranged from 12.0%-94.8%. Most of the study participants (58.0%-90.0%) exhibited positive attitudes. With regard to practice questions, 32.0%-70.4% of study participants had correct practice. There was no significant difference between the gender, year of study and specialties concerning knowledge and attitude. However, significant differences existed in practice between specialties (p=0.001). Conclusions: Participants had poor to moderate knowledge and practice while faring moderate to good in the attitude domain that vary by year of study, gender and specialty. Training and workshops are required to have better compliance of biomedical waste management in all the dental institutes.