Assessment of Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices on Usage of Plastic Goods among Undergraduates in Kathmandu Valley

Nanda Kumar Tharu; Sajesh Shrestha

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the level of Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice (KAP) regarding the use of plastic items among undergraduates in Kathmandu Valley. A standardized questionnaire was used to conduct a survey among 400 undergraduate students. Knowledge, attitude, and practice scores ranged from 1 to 8, 1 to 7, and 1 to 17, respectively. Data analysis was carried out using descriptive statistics, correlation, t-tests, and ANOVA. Gender, study year, faculty, and local level were all prompting factors. Overall, the mean scores for knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding the usage of plastic products were 5.54±1.48, 4.22±1.52 and 9.94±1.52, respectively. Males exhibited higher knowledge levels (5.65) than females (5.43) (p-value = 0.728>0.05); females, on the other hand, had a positive attitude (4.40, p-value = 0.003 0.05) and practice (10.42, p-value = 0.240>0.05) toward plastic use. Students in the Science stream outperformed those in the Humanities stream in terms of knowledge (p-value = 0.000 0.05) and attitude (p-value = 0.03 0.05), but not in practice (p-value = 0.15>0.05). Similarly, students in their third and fourth years showed more knowledge (p-value = 0.000 0.05) than students in their prior study year, while second year students had a stronger sense of attitude (p value = 0.191>0.05) and practice (p-value = 0.216>0.05).Metropolitan cities scored lowest in knowledge (p-value = 0.090>0.05) and highest in attitude (p value = 0.419>0.05) and practice (p-value = 0.318>0.05). The link between knowledge, attitude, and practice was moderate however significant.

Abstract

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