Conference abstract
Assessment of healthcare waste management across different categories of health facilities in the Limbe Health District
Pan African Medical Journal - Conference Proceedings. 2023:18(72).03
Oct 2023.
doi: 10.11604/pamj-cp.2023.18.72.2026
Archived on: 03 Oct 2023
Contact the corresponding author
Keywords: Healthcare waste, healthcare waste management, healthcare workers, Cameroon
Poster
Assessment of healthcare waste management across different categories of health facilities in the Limbe Health District
Brenda Motangu1,&, Alain Chefor Djam1, Charles Kouanfack1,2
1Department of public health and epidemiology, University of Dschang, Dschang, Cameroun, 2Technical and Scientific Coordinator of the International Research Laboratory IRD/IMPM/CREMER, Cameroun
&Corresponding author
Introduction: in Cameroon, healthcare waste management (HCWM) is ineffective as waste is seldom segregated, serving as a threat to human health, the public and the environment. An assessment carried out by WHO/UNICEF in 2015 revealed that 58% of health facilities sampled in 24 different countries had adequate waste management system. The objective was to evaluate healthcare waste management in fifteen selected health facilities of 4 different categories in the Limbe health district.
Methods: we carried out a health facility based cross sectional study with descriptive and analytic components in 15 health facilities in the Limbe health district from November 2022 to July 2023. Data was collected for a period of 83 days, from March to May 2023 from all healthcare workers; whose work led to the generation of healthcare waste, who were involved in HCWM and who accepted to participate in our study. The data was collected using a questionnaire, a health facility based observational checklist and also through interviews.
Results: out of the 341 healthcare workers who participated in our study, 327 were retained giving a response rate of 95.9%, Of which; 129(39.4%), 79(24.2%), 38(11.6%), 81(24.8%) were from 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th categories respectively. The overall knowledge level revealed; 49(15.0%) of study participants had good knowledge level and 7(46.7%) health facilities practiced safe HCWM. The most reported problems faced with HCWM implementation was non-respect of HCWM guidelines 136(41.6%). Statistical significant associations were shown between education level (0.002), training on HCWM (0.001) and knowledge on HCWM. Marginal statistical significant associations were found between health facility category and HCWM practice.
Conclusion: from the gaps observed in our study, we noticed that an appreciable percentage (50.2%) of healthcare workers knew what healthcare waste management was but didn’t practice appropriate HCWM which could have been because of; Ignorance due to their level of education, Lack/inadequate training on HCWM, Non-respect of HCWM guidelines. We can therefore conclude that healthcare waste management practice did not meet norms and does not depend on the health facility category.
Assessment of healthcare waste management across different categories of health facilities in the Limbe Health District
Brenda Motangu1,&, Alain Chefor Djam1, Charles Kouanfack1,2
1Department of public health and epidemiology, University of Dschang, Dschang, Cameroun, 2Technical and Scientific Coordinator of the International Research Laboratory IRD/IMPM/CREMER, Cameroun
&Corresponding author
Introduction: in Cameroon, healthcare waste management (HCWM) is ineffective as waste is seldom segregated, serving as a threat to human health, the public and the environment. An assessment carried out by WHO/UNICEF in 2015 revealed that 58% of health facilities sampled in 24 different countries had adequate waste management system. The objective was to evaluate healthcare waste management in fifteen selected health facilities of 4 different categories in the Limbe health district.
Methods: we carried out a health facility based cross sectional study with descriptive and analytic components in 15 health facilities in the Limbe health district from November 2022 to July 2023. Data was collected for a period of 83 days, from March to May 2023 from all healthcare workers; whose work led to the generation of healthcare waste, who were involved in HCWM and who accepted to participate in our study. The data was collected using a questionnaire, a health facility based observational checklist and also through interviews.
Results: out of the 341 healthcare workers who participated in our study, 327 were retained giving a response rate of 95.9%, Of which; 129(39.4%), 79(24.2%), 38(11.6%), 81(24.8%) were from 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th categories respectively. The overall knowledge level revealed; 49(15.0%) of study participants had good knowledge level and 7(46.7%) health facilities practiced safe HCWM. The most reported problems faced with HCWM implementation was non-respect of HCWM guidelines 136(41.6%). Statistical significant associations were shown between education level (0.002), training on HCWM (0.001) and knowledge on HCWM. Marginal statistical significant associations were found between health facility category and HCWM practice.
Conclusion: from the gaps observed in our study, we noticed that an appreciable percentage (50.2%) of healthcare workers knew what healthcare waste management was but didn’t practice appropriate HCWM which could have been because of; Ignorance due to their level of education, Lack/inadequate training on HCWM, Non-respect of HCWM guidelines. We can therefore conclude that healthcare waste management practice did not meet norms and does not depend on the health facility category.
