Knowledge, Attitude And Practices Of Healthcare Waste Management And Risk Perception In Ho Municipality

Abstract

Globally, there exist a well-defined set of rules for handling healthcare waste; but the slackness and lack of adequate training and awareness in the implementation of n legislative and regulatory policy guidelines lead to serious health and ecological trepidation. The present study was conducted to assess the level of awareness of healthcare waste management amongst health personnel and the perceptions regarding the potential risks associated with waste, through mixed-method approach of data collection. Simple random sampling was used to select 165 health personnel from the Municipal Health Directorate. Quantitative data was analysed using SPSS chi-squares and the level of significance set at P ≤ 0.05. Descriptive statistics were carried out to determine relative percentages. Results show that the total level of awareness of health care waste management amongst staff among highest in Doctors, followed by laboratory technicians, nurses, health assistants and lastly was at personnel 1%, 75%, and 68.9%, 60% and 35.7% respectively. The study uncovered that majority of health personnel were not aware of the Ministry of Health Guidelines on the management of healthcare waste. Chi-square test of association between a health worker’s profession and level of knowledge of healthcare waste management (χ2 = 13.704; p = 0.008 at 0.05 significance level) depicted health personnel’s job the type affects level of knowledge of healthcare waste management. Similarly, chi-square test of association between job category health personnel risk perception about infection from infectious waste (χ2 = 20.278; p = 0.009 at 0.05 significance level) indicated health personnel’s risk perception was influenced by their job type. The study recommends the need to have specialised waste workers is very essential or the training of the existing personnel on effective healthcare waste management as only 35.7% of current waste personnel indicated their knowledge in waste management as good.