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.