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

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.