Knowledge and Awareness of Bio-Medical Waste Management among Senior Undergraduate and Specialist Dental Students: Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Background: There has been a universal rising in knowledge and awareness regarding the bio-medical

waste management and the hazards related to it. Purpose: aims to determine and asses the knowledge

as well as the awareness towards the management of bio-medical waste among senior undergraduate and

specialist dental students in the Faculty of Dental Medicine, Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya - Indonesia.

Materials and Method: The study was carried out by using a close-ended survey. The Population of the

study consisted of 743 students. However, the taken sample was based on Lemeshow method that includes

130 senior undergraduate and 62 specialist students making a total of 192 participants. Statistical analysis

was performed via descriptive statistical analysis and chi-square test. Results: This survey was shown that

around 192 questionnaires were distributed of which (86%) returned and analyzed. It was seen that (58.7%)

of senior undergraduate students and (87.1%) of specialist students, were having average knowledge of

bio-medical waste management system in dental clinics. According to the Chi-square test analysis, it was

seen there is a statistically significant P-value (p?0.05). Conclusion: Within the limitation of this study,

we affirmed that there is a good level of knowledge and awareness of bio-medical waste management. In

this present study, highly needed for continuing education and training programs to be conducted in dental

teaching curricula in the Faculty of Dental Medicine