Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY Assessment of Effectiveness of Educational Intervention on Knowledge among Bio-Medical Waste Handlers

Abstract: Background: The seriousness of improper bio-medical waste management was brought to the light during summer 1998. Data available from Indian studies, mostly hospitals, indicate that roughly about 1-5kg / bed/day of waste is generated [1]. The Knowledge of medical, paramedical staff about the biomedical waste management is important to improve the biomedical waste management practices [2]. Aim: 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 among bio-medical waste handlers regarding disposal of biomedical waste in Krishna Hospital, Karad. (1) To assess the status of knowledge among bio-medical waste handlers regarding disposal of biomedical waste after the educational Intervention. (2) To determine the association of knowledge among bio-medical waste handlers with selected socio demographic variables. Material & methods: A before and after interventional study was carried out on the same group of participants ’ i.e. biomedical waste handlers at Krishna Hospital, Karad in the state of Maharashtra from October 2008 to September 2013. Results: 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%