Statistical Analysis of Factors Affecting the Infection Wasts Separation: Case Study of Khon Kaen Municipality, Khon Kaen Province

Abstract

This study is aimed to study the factors affecting the separation of infectious waste living in Khon Kaen Municipality, Khon Kaen Province. The data was collected by questionnaires, interviews, and observations. The study area is divided into 4 administrative districts, namely (1) Bueng Thung Sang, (2) Srichan, (3) Old Town, and (4) Nong Waeng. We collected data by using 400 questionnaires and studied the relationships between various factors and the infectious waste separation by using the Chi-square test statistic and compared the differences in various factors (Predisposing Factors, Enabling Factors, and Reinforcing Factors) between the sampling population who do and do not separate infectious waste by using t-test statistic. The results illustrate that the education level factor significantly relate to the separation behavior at 0.05 level. The data show that people with higher than bachelor’s degree have a greater number of waste separation. In addition, the residential area factor is also related to the separation people. It was found that Bueng Thung Sang area has bigger number of waste separation people than other administrative districts because some communities in Bueng Thung Sang area already have successful waste separation project. Moreover, the examination of the difference in the mean scores of various factors including predisposing factors in term of attitude, enabling factors, and reinforcing factors between population who do and do not separate infectious waste found that the average scores of each factor are significantly different at the 0.05 level. For the study of relationship between various factors (Predisposing Factors, Enabling Factors, and Reinforcing Factors) and the separation was found that all factors are related to the separation behavior excluding the factor in attitude which said that infectious waste separation is municipality duty. Therefore, we have suggested the guidelines for encouraging infectious waste separation by rising predisposing factors and reinforcing factors such as capacity building, organization training, and knowledge publicizing. For increasing enabling factors, Khon Kaen Municipality should provide different color garbage bags for waste separation by type and set up more infectious waste disposal stations near the community for easy accessibility.