Evaluation of knowledge, attitude, and practices amongst Ayatollah Rohani hospital personnel in Babol regarding medical waste management

Aims: Considering the importance of medical waste recognition by health centers staff and its role on providing, maintaining and improving social and environmental health, this study aimed to evaluate the knowledge, attitude and practice of Babol Rohani hospital personnel toward medical waste management. Materials and methods: During this descriptive, analytical and cross-sectional study, a self-structured questionnaire, whose validity and reliability were approved (Kappa=0.73), was used. 130 personnel of the so-called hospital filled out the questionnaire. The data was analyzed using SPSS Version 17 and Kruskal Wallis and Man Whitney tests. Findings: The average age of participants was 31.1+ 6.1 years with the average working experience of 4.4+ 3.6 years. 65% of them consisted of females, 52% had Master’s Degree and only 3% had high school diploma and lower. Their mean scores of knowledge, attitude, and practice were 10.7+ 1.6 (out of 15), 5.5+ 0.8 (out of 6), and 4.5+ 1.5 (out of 6), respectively. 12% of the participants (16 people) possessed low, 72% (93 people) medium and 16% (21 people) high knowledge. Furthermore, 84 percent of them (109 people) had positive attitude and 50 percent (65 people) had good practice. Conclusion: This study revealed that the level of knowledge, attitude and practice of the participants was acceptable. Besides, these factors can be promoted via more emphasis on training and efficient managerial strategies.