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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Journal of Health and Allied Sciences NU 2022; 12(02): 126-133
DOI: 10.1055/s-0041-1736273
Original Article

A Comparative Study on the Knowledge, Attitude, and Perception toward Hazardous Medical Waste Produced at Home in a Coastal City of Karnataka, India

Prajna Narayan
1   Department of Community Medicine, KS Hegde Medical Academy, Mangalore, Karnataka, India
,
Ankeeta Menona Jacob
1   Department of Community Medicine, KS Hegde Medical Academy, Mangalore, Karnataka, India
,
Pranav Shetty
1   Department of Community Medicine, KS Hegde Medical Academy, Mangalore, Karnataka, India
,
Preethika Singh
1   Department of Community Medicine, KS Hegde Medical Academy, Mangalore, Karnataka, India
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Abstract

Introduction Hazardous healthcare waste produced at home contributes to approximately 0.5% of biomedical waste, and although potentially infectious, is often discarded with other domestic wastes. The study aimed to quantify and compare types and patterns of biomedical waste generated in homes and to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practices regarding biomedical waste among selected urban and rural households in the coastal area of Mangalore city in Karnataka.

Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted in households consisting of rural and urban field practice areas of a tertiary care hospital in coastal Karnataka from November 2017 to February 2018. A pretested semi-structured questionnaire on knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding healthcare waste generated at home was assessed. Qualitative variables of the waste segregation practice, types of biomedical waste, the knowledge, perception, and attitude to practices regarding biomedical waste were expressed in percentages proportions and analyzed using SPSS v.20.

Results Baby diapers were the most common hazardous waste. The number of baby diapers produced daily in rural and urban areas was 32 (42.7%) and 64 (85.3%), respectively. The urban households had better knowledge of possible hazardous healthcare waste at home, 28 (37.33%) compared with 7 (9.3%) in rural households. Seventy-one (94.7%) urban and 49 (65.3%) rural households had a favorable attitude toward the disposal of hazardous domestic biomedical waste.

Conclusion The knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding hazardous healthcare waste produced at the household level were better among urban households compared with rural households.

Keywords

refuse disposal - medical waste disposal - condoms - menstrual hygiene products - domestic biomedical waste


Publication History

Article published online:
24 October 2021

© 2021. Nitte (Deemed to be University). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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