The impact of an educational program on the electronic waste management knowledge and practices of dental interns: an interventional study

Abstract

The increasing volume of electronic waste (e-waste) poses considerable risks to the environment and humans. This study evaluated an educational program impact on e-waste management among dental interns at Faculty of Dentistry, Alexandria University, Egypt. This interventional quasi-experimental study without control group used a validated self-administered questionnaire to assess participants’ awareness, knowledge, and reported practices before, immediately after, and three months following the educational intervention on 76 participants. Data was analyzed using the Friedman test with Dunn’s post-hoc comparisons and Spearman’s correlation. At baseline, awareness, knowledge, and practice mean score percentages (15.45%±5.26%, 16.07%±13.81%, 17.94%±14.84%, respectively) were low. Following the intervention, significant increases were observed across all domains at both the immediate and three-month intervals (p < 0.001). While awareness and knowledge scores peaked immediately and showed slight decline at three months, self-reported practice mean score percentages demonstrated a progressive upward trend, reaching 72.13%±17.08% at the final follow-up. Significant positive correlations between knowledge and practice before and after the program were observed (p < 0.05). The present program was associated with improvements in participants’ awareness, knowledge, and practices regarding e-waste management; however, these findings should be interpreted cautiously due to the pre–post design, reliance on self-reporting and absence of a control group.