ABSTRACT
The earth is facing a major challenge today in the form of climate change and global warming. To solve this problem, it is important for there to be proper awareness, a positive attitude and implementation of sustainable eco-friendly approaches. To assess university students' knowledge, attitude and practice regarding eco-friendliness. It was a cross sectional study conducted among 280 students from 3 universities in Ajman, UAE. The study tool was a validated, pilot tested, self-administered questionnaire which was prepared in English language. A scoring system was used for assessment of the knowledge, attitude and practice. The study was ethically approved, informed consent was taken from participants, analysis was done using SPSS version 20. Wilcoxon Rank Sum, Kruskal -Wallis and Spearman Correlation tests were used. The participants were mostly female [71.4%], aged 20 -21 years old [40.6%], from the Middle-Eastern countries [31.9%]. Our study revealed that majority [82%] of the study population had adequate knowledge, and 78.6% of them have good attitude, but their practice habits are poor in comparison as only 8.6% of them frequently carry out eco friendly practices. Higher median attitude score was found among females compared to males, while a comparatively lower median knowledge score was found among the participants from African countries, and the differences in median scores were significant in both cases. Attitude showed significant correlations which were positive with knowledge and negative with practice, while the correlation between knowledge and practice was negative and not significant. Majority of our study population had adequate knowledge and positive attitude regarding eco-friendliness, but this was not reflected in their actions as is evidenced by their poor practice habits