EFFECTIVENESS OF HEALTH EDUCATION INTERVENTION ON KNOWLEDGE OF RECYCLING AS A SUSTAINABLE WASTE DISPOSAL METHOD AMONG HOUSEHOLDS IN CALABAR METROPOLIS, CROSS RIVER STATE, NIGERIA

This study assessed the effectiveness of a health education intervention on households’ knowledge of recycling as a sustainable waste disposal method in Calabar Metropolis, Cross River State, Nigeria. A quasi-experimental pre-test–post-test non-equivalent control group design was adopted. The study population comprised 658,772 households in Calabar Metropolis, while a sample of 120 households was selected through a four-stage sampling procedure and assigned to experimental (n = 60) and control (n = 60) groups. Data were collected using the researcher-developed Health Education Intervention on Knowledge of Waste Disposal Questionnaire (HEIPKWDQ), which demonstrated satisfactory reliability (Cronbach’s Alpha = 0.869). The experimental group received an eight-week health education intervention on recycling and sustainable waste disposal, whereas the control group received a placebo programme on general environmental hygiene. Data were analysed using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions, while paired-sample and independent-sample t-tests were used to test the hypotheses at the 0.05 level of significance. Findings showed that the experimental group’s mean knowledge score increased markedly from 2.31 ± 0.36 at pre-test to 7.59 ± 0.36 at post-test, improving from the “not knowledgeable” to the “highly knowledgeable” category, whereas the control group showed only a slight increase from 2.17 ± 0.43 to 3.03 ± 0.58 and remained “not knowledgeable.” The paired-sample t-test revealed a significant improvement in the experimental group’s knowledge (t = 107.53, p < 0.05), while the independent-sample t-test indicated a significant post-intervention difference between the experimental and control groups (t = 72.43, p < 0.05). The study concluded that health education intervention is highly effective in improving household knowledge of recycling and recommended the institutionalisation of community-based recycling education programmes to promote sustainable waste management practices.