Knowledge and Practice Towards Medical Waste Mangment and its Associated Factors among Health Care Workers at Public Hospitals Addis Abeba Ethiopia

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Date

2021-05

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Addis Ababa University

Abstract

In Ethiopia, medical waste management has become a problem due to an ever-increasing number of hospitals, clinics, diagnostic laboratories and other health care services. Although health care workers are one key personnel for the proper management of medical wastes at any health facilities, their level of performance depends on their level of knowledge, practice and some related factors regarding medical waste management. A Quantitative institutional based cross sectional study and a qualitative observational study was conducted and a total of 627 health care workers from 4 public hospitals at Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, were included. Study participants were allocated proportionally based on the number of healthcare workers from each hospital and profession. Data were collected using pre-tested self-administered structured questionnaires and observational checklists. The collected data was analyzed using SPSS version25.0. Multivariable logistic regression model was used to identify factors associated with knowledge and practice of healthcare workers. Out of the total respondents, 52.7% and 51.5% of health care workers had adequate knowledge and adequate practice towards medical waste management, respectively. Hospital working hours of 8 per day [AOR=1.5, 95% CI (1.09, 2.18)], Getting MWM information from guidelines [AOR=1.54, 95% CI (1.087, 2.189)] and adequate practice score [AOR = 2.14, 95% CI (1.50, 3.02)] were significantly associated with the knowledge level of health care workers. On the other hand, HCWs working at Saint peter hospital [AOR=4.1, 95%CI (2.78-7.75)], professional categories, Doctors[(AOR=3.8,95%CI(1.2-12.70],Nurse[(AOR=4.4(1.38-13.8)]MTs [(AOR=9, 95%CI(2.3-44.9)], getting medical waste management information from training [AOR=2.1,95%CI(1.58-3.50), getting medical waste management information from others[(AOR=0.49,95%CI(0.25,0.95)], presence of MWM guidelines in hospital[(AOR=1.73, 95%CI(1.04,2.88)] and adequate knowledge score [(AOR=2.10,95%CI(1.45-3.048)] were significantly associated with practice level of health care workers. In this study, both knowledge and practice level of health care workers towards medical waste management were not satisfactory. To improve better, proper and intensive job training is recommended.

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Keywords

knowledge, practice, medical waste, waste management, health care worker

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