Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices of Medical Waste Management among Healthcare Staff in Dental Clinics of Sana’a City, Yemen

Abstract

Background: Sufficient knowledge, attitudes and practices toward medical waste management lead to minimizing risks of diseases transmitted from the wastes of hospitals and dental clinics to the community. Objective: The aim of this study was to assess knowledge, attitudes, and practices of medical waste management among healthcare staff in dental clinics of Sana’a city, Yemen. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 194 healthcare staff of dental clinics in Sana’a city, Yemen, in the duration of May to July 2018. The random sample method was used to select dental clinics and health care personnel in the selected clinics. IBM SPSS program version 21 was used for data analysis. Results: The overall adequate knowledge, positive attitudes, and practices of participants were (77.3%, 78.9% and 52%) respectively. Only 29.9% of them knew of the medical waste management legislation while 97.9% were knowledgeable about the role of medical waste in disease transmission. The majority of participants (96.4%) believed that safe management of health care waste is an issue at all while, only 24.2% were using the color-coding system for disposing of medical waste. Conclusions: The authors concluded that the levels of adequate knowledge and positive attitudes of healthcare staff of dental clinics in Sana’a city were good while the level of practice was low.