THE PREDICTIVE VALUE OF BIORISK PERCEPTION ON BIORISK MANAGEMENT LEVEL OF UNIVERSITY BIOSCIENCE LABORATORIES IN KENYA

Abstract

Recent biorisk management breaches and adverse outcomes indicting life scientists at the universities demand more attention to reduce any incidences of fatal and non-fatal injuries. The main objective of the study was to determine the predictive value of biorisk perception on the level of biological risks’ management at the university bioscience laboratories. A quantitative, descriptive survey design was employed and administered through a survey by both the researcher and online to 1300 university students, lecturers and laboratory technologists with a response rate of 79.5% (1034 respondents). A questionnaire designed to capture independent (level of biorisk perception of life scientists) and dependent variables’ (Biorisk Management Level) scores were used. IBM SPSS software assisted in computing Pearson correlation coefficients, analysis of variance (t-tests, F-tests), univariate, simple linear regression analysis and chi-square tests. Data was summarized as tables and other descriptive statistics. One way ANOVA revealed that private medium university category (M = 21.00) had the highest biorisk perception mean score but there was no statistically significant difference of the mean scores at the p<.05 for the six university categories [F (5, 1028) = .329, p = .895]. Simple linear regression analysis revealed that 36.3% of the variation in Biological Risk Management Level at the universities was explained by variation in biorisk perception (R Square= .363, p<0.001). It was concluded that biorisk perception has great predictive value in determining the biorisk management level of university bioscience laboratories. To improve biorisk management at the universities, there is need to enhance biorisk perception of students, lecturers and laboratory technologists.

Key words: biorisk perception, biorisk management, biosafety, biosecurity, university bioscience laboratories.