Exploring the Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice of 2nd Year MBBS Students Regarding Pesticides, Food Adulterants, Pollutants, and Insect Repellents in A Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital

Introduction:Pesticides are the chemicals that increase agricultural yield by eliminating, reducing, or repelling pests.Pesticides can enter the body through inhalation, dermal absorption or ingestion with contaminated food.Impacts of air pollution include COPD, cough, shortness of breath, wheezing, asthma, pulmonary insufficiency etc.Aim of the Study: to assess knowledge, attitude, and practice of second year MBBS students regarding pesticides, food adulterants, pollutants, and insect repellents Materials and Method: A questionnaire-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 250 second-year MBBS students.Pre-test was taken before teaching about the topic mentioned above and post-test evaluation was done after teaching about the topic.Both tests were conducted online through google form and the response time given was 20 minutes. Result:The study involved 70 students in pre-test and 156 students in post-test.The majority of the students were male, with a mean age of 19.2 years.In the pre-test, 72.9% of students learned about pesticides from the Internet, research articles, and academic publications.In the post test, 77.4% learned about pesticides via the Internet, research articles, and academic books, and 19.4% from academic books.The pre-test (85.7%) students knew the possible motive for utilising adulterants, and the post-test response increased to 91%. Conclusion:The study concluded that educational efforts or interventions have had a positive impact on increasing awareness and understanding of these topics.