1.Knowledge attitude and practice on disposable plastic tableware among college students
ZHAO Fuqin, ZOU Wei, WANG Chunju, ZHANG Yunchen, WANG Runyuan, HUANG Xiaowei,BAI Hua
Chinese Journal of School Health 2022;43(10):1512-1515
Objective:
To investigate the knowledge, attitude, and practice on disposable plastic tableware and self reported gastrointestinal symptoms in college students.
Methods:
Stratified sampling method was applied in 338 students of a medical university during the 2020-2021 academic year. The study investigated knowledge, attitude and practice on disposable plastic tableware and self reported gastrointestinal symptoms among students.
Results:
There were 24.0% students were unaware of the specific material of plastic tableware, 82.0% students had no idea about the meaning of "plastic products logo". About 94.1% of the students thought that plastic tableware might contaminate food, and female students (97.1%) were more worried than male (86.3%) ( χ 2=14.32, P <0.05). The attitude towards the use of disposable tableware was not consistent with the cumulative use score of disposable plastic tableware ( F=1.31, P =0.25),students with high consumption had higher score of accumulative use of disposable plastic tableware ( F=8.32, P <0.01). About 18.3% of the students were prone to report gastrointestinal symptoms. The cumulative scores of disposable plastic tableware weekly using frequency in students who reported gastrointestinal symptoms(14.85±4.01) was still higher than that of no gastrointestinal symptoms group(13.78±3.50), regardless of the effect of takeout ordering frequency( F=4.53,P = 0.03 ).
Conclusion
College students have limited knowledge of disposable plastic products. However, the use of disposable plastic products may be associated with gastrointestinal diseases. It is suggested to active the propaganda and education, to reduce the use of disposable tableware, and enhance the awareness of health and environment.