Analyzing knowledge,attitudes and practices around reusable water bottles among Medical students

Abstract

Introduction: Reusable plastic bottles have integral part of modern day life but poses significant public health and environmental challenges. In this context the present study was conducted among medical students about their knowledge, attitude & practice towards use of reusable plastics bottles as this groups are most concerned not only about their own health but also community & environment.

Objectives: The objectives of this were to evaluate the knowledge, attitude and practices of medical students regarding the plastic bottle usage and their socio-demographic profile.

Materials and methods: The descriptive cross sectional & institutional based study was conducted among 215 MBBS medical students of Calcutta National Medical College from 17th February to 2nd March 2025 by web based self administered questionnaires method with help of predesigned pretested semi-structured questionnaire. Data compilation and analysis were done in Microsoft office excel 2016.

Result: From the present study it was found among 215 study subjects 44.7% were 21-23 yrs of age group,71.1% were male, 67.4% were from urban area, 37.2% were living in hostel & 43.7% were from 1st year MBBS student. Majority of study subjects aware about single use plastics bottle(74.7%), demarcation of single use plastics bottle (33.9%), safest type of plastics bottle (32.3%) & microplastics (81%) but majority have wrong idea regarding number of plastics bottle type (77.3%). Though majority study subjects had favorable attitude towards single plastics bottle uses but practice were not correct.

Conclusion: From this present study it is concluded attitude and awareness regarding single plastics bottle uses are favorable or correct but practices are not according to their knowledge and attitude.