Impact of an intervention programme on knowledge, attitude and practice of healthcare staff regarding pharmaceutical waste management, Gaza, Palestine

Abstract Objectives To assess knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) of healthcare staff regarding pharmaceutical waste management; and to determine the impact of an educational programme on the KAP survey items. Design Pre–post-test intervention study. Methods The pre-intervention phase was performed using a sample of 530 out of 1500 healthcare workers. A predesigned interview questionnaire was used to assess KAP. Next, an educational programme was designed and offered to a subsample of 69 healthcare workers. KAP were re-assessed for the programme attendees using the same interview questionnaire, both immediately (post-test) and six months after the end of the programme (follow-up test). The parametric paired sample t -test was used to assess the difference between pre-test and follow-up test results. Results Poor knowledge and poor practice levels (scores 50%) detected in the pre-intervention phase were found to improve to satisfactory levels (scores ≥75%) in the follow-up phase. Attitude was found to be positive (score ≥75%) in all phases of the study. Conclusion The educational programme led to a significant improvement in KAP of healthcare staff regarding pharmaceutical waste management ( P < 0.001).