The effect of an educational program on the knowledge and practices of diabetic patients regarding sharps waste disposal at home

The disposal of sharp waste generated at home by diabetic patients poses a major public health problem. This study evaluated an educational program designed to improve patients' knowledge and practices around sharps disposal. A non-equivalent quasi-experimental study was performed at a main diabetic center in Egypt on 100 participants divided into intervention and non-intervention groups. The effect of the interventional program was tested by the evaluation of the improvement in participants' knowledge and practice after two and four months of the program. Initially, there were no differences in knowledge or practice scores between the groups. After the implementation of the program, there was a noticeable difference in subjects' knowledge levels and scores between the two groups, with the intervention group significantly outperforming the non-intervention group (p < 0.001). There was a significant improvement in overall practice scores in the intervention group across post-intervention visits, and they registered a score of 14/16, which matches a good practice level, while in the non-intervention group, the score remained unchanged at 4.4/16, which corresponds to a poor practice level (p < 0.001). These findings suggest that educational programs can effectively increase diabetic patients' knowledge and improve their sharps waste disposal practices.Clinical trial registration number: PACTR202310841894237. Date: 05 October 2023, "retrospectively registered".