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Medical Waste Handling Practice and Associated Factors among Cleaners in Publicn Hospitals under Addis Ababa Health Bureau, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Finot Admassu Mariam, Zewdie Aderaw Alemu

Background: Medical waste is generated from different medical procedures in a health care facility. Mismanagement of medical waste involves improper handling from the point of generation to its final disposal. Due to mismanagement of medical waste serious health hazards occur to the public and environment. Even though health facility cleaners are responsible for the safe management of medical waste, less attention is given in creating awareness on the risks associated with improper medical waste handling. Taking this in to account this study will assess the medical waste handling practice and associated factors among cleaners in public hospitals under AAHB. Methods: An institutional based cross sectional study design was. All cleaners from the three randomly selected hospitals were included in the study. A pre tested self- administered questionnaire was used for collecting the data. Data were entered and analysed using data entry and analysis software SPSS version 23. Binary logistic regression was used for the analysis. Bivariate analysis was done and variables with a p-value of <0.25 were chosen to enter to the multivariable analysis model. Crude odds ratio (COR) and adjusted odds ratio (AOR) was calculated to assess the strength of association. Results: The result showed that the medical waste handling practice among cleaners was found to be good only among 25.3% of the participants. Presence of waste disposal policy (OR: 2.2; 95% CI; 1.2; 4.1), adequacy of staff (OR: 2.0; 95% CI; 1.1; 3.8) and the type of hospital (OR: 2.8; 95% CI; 1.2; 6.6) were found to have significant association with medical waste handling practice. Conclusion: The finding revealed that majority of the workers in the studied facilities has poor medical waste handling practice. It also showed that the poor practice was mostly associated with institution based factors. Thus, management authorities and responsible bodies should establish waste disposal policy, hire more staff to minimize the work burden, regular training, supervision and monitor the performance of each staff periodically is recommended.