Assessment of Knowledge, Attitude and Practices towards Health Care Waste Management and Associated Factors among Cleaners Working in Public Health Care Facilities of West Shewa Zone, Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Health care waste is a by-product of health care that includes potential risk and non-risk wastes. In the absence of waste segregation, however, all wastes generated in health care facilities can be considered as infectious and hazardous. As a result there is chance of getting serious life threatening infections such as hepatitis virus and Human immunity Virus (HIV) due to risk of direct contact with blood, body fluids, and sharp injuries. Objective: The aim of this study to assess Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of cleaners towards Health Care Wastes management and its associated factors in public health care facilities, West Shewa. Method: Institution based cross-sectional study was conducted on 229 randomly selected cleaners working in public health care facilities of West Shewa Zone from July 2022 to September 2022. Data were collected by structured questionnaire and observational check list from the study participants. Then data were entered into Epi-data 3.1 software and exported into SPSS version 21 for analysis. Descriptive statistics were computed and the results were presented by texts, tables and figures. Both bi-variable and multi -variable logistic regression analysis were done. In bivariate analysis variables with a P-value of <0.25 were selected as candidate variables for multi variable logistic regression analysis. Adjusted odd ratio (AOR) with 95% CI and P -value <0.05 were considered to declare a significant association between independent and outcome variables. Result: Out of total, 229 study participants were participated in the study by making 94.6% response rate. In this study, 109(47.6%), 110(48%) and 65 (28.4%) of the study participants had good knowledge, positive attitude and good practice regarding health care waste management respectively. Having information on health care waste management, prior training, supervision and level of education were variables that showed significant association with KAP of health care waste management in the study area. Conclusion and Recommendation: The study concluded that knowledge, attitude and practice of the study participants were low. Having information on health care waste management, training, supervision and level of education were variables that showed significant association with KAP of cleaners. Awareness creation including orientation, information provision about health care waste management, on job training and supervision of cleaners is necessary.