<![CDATA[Introduction: Open waste burning threatens peri-urban communities in Indonesia. This study assessed changes in knowledge and attitude and descriptively examined reports of burning and burn marks following an HBM-framed leaflet intervention. Methods: A quantitative one-group pretest–posttest study was conducted with 100 household heads or adult household representatives in North Palu District, Indonesia, selected purposively from households that had burned waste in the past 6 months. The leaflet was developed using Health Belief Model (HBM) constructs as a content framework; however, these constructs were not measured as separate variables. Knowledge and attitude scores were collected before and one week after a 15–20-minute face-to-face leaflet education session. Knowledge was scored from 0–8, while attitudes ranged from 8–40, with higher scores indicating a stronger rejection of open waste burning and greater support for safer waste management. Paired t-tests were used to estimate changes in mean scores, and behavioural and burn-mark data were analysed descriptively. Results: Mean knowledge scores increased from 3.11 (SD = 1.30) to 6.94 (SD = 0.97), with a mean difference of 3.83 points (95% CI: 3.52–4.14; p < 0.001). The Wilcoxon sensitivity analysis supported the same conclusion for knowledge (p < 0.001). Mean attitude scores increased from 22.98 (SD = 2.49) to 32.87 (SD = 2.81), with a mean difference of 9.89 points (95% CI: 9.18–10.60; p < 0.001). Descriptively, frequent self-reported burning decreased from 39.0% to 3.0%, and fresh burn marks decreased from 54.0% to 8.0% at one-week follow-up. Conclusion: The HBM-framed leaflet was linked to short-term gains in knowledge and attitudes about open waste burning. The behavioural and burn-mark results should be seen as preliminary descriptions rather than proof of lasting behaviour change or emission reduction. Controlled long-term studies with objective environmental measurements are needed to establish causal relationships.]]>
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