Knowledge and awareness regarding biomedical waste management in dental teaching institutions in India- A systematic review

Abstract

Objectives: Proper handling, treatment and disposal of biomedical wastes are important elements in any health care setting. Not much attention has been paid to the management of Biomedical Waste (BMW) in recent years, in dental colleges and hospitals in India. The present systematic review was conducted to assess knowledge and awareness regarding BMW management among staff and students of dental teaching institutions in India. Material and Methods: A systematic review of relevant cross-sectional studies was conducted regarding BMW management in India in dental teaching institutions in India. Six studies were finally included in the present review after conducting both electronic and manual search like Pubmed, EMBASE etc. and after making necessary exclusions. Potential biases were addressed and relevant data was extracted by the concerned investigators. Results: Six studies were finally included in the review. Colour coding of wastes was not done by 67% of the subjects in one of the studies conducted in Haryana. Almost all the subjects agreed to the fact that exposure to hazardous health care waste can result in disease or infection in another study. According to another study reports, none of the respondents was able to list the legislative act regarding BMW when asked. Conclusions: The results of the present review showed that knowledge and awareness level of subjects was inadequate and there is considerable variation in practice and management regarding BMW. There is a great need for continuing education and training programmes to be conducted in dental teaching institutions in India. Key words:Biomedical waste, knowledge, awareness, dentists, institution.

Awareness of Biomedical Waste Management among Dentists associated with Institutions and Private Practitioners of North India: A Comparative Study

“…About 23% of respondents stored lead foils/mercury separately before disposal, which was in contrast to Singh et al 8 About 72% incorrectly disposed of expired medicine, which was similar to Sood and Sood 2 and Singh et al 8 Expired medicine is considered as cytotoxic waste and thus should be disposed of in a secured landfill. About 54% of respondents said that it should be a teamwork between government and dentists, which was in contrast to Khandelwal et al 17 and Kapoor et al 18 as the majority of participants believed that it would add extra work and increase financial burden. Safe management of BMW comes across more of an attitude-related issue rather than the absence of or providing technology and facilities.…”

“…About 76% of respondents had knowledge of colorcoded bins which was similar to Narang et al 6 and in contrast to Khandelwal et al, 17 Kapoor et al, 18 and Bala et al 15 About 76% of respondents segregated waste before disposal, whereas 24% did not segregate waste which was similar to Sudhakar and Chandrashekhar 19 and…”

“…All (100%) institutional respondents reported waste generation of >5 kg every day, which was similar to the study conducted by Khandelwal et al 17 About 55% of respondents said they were aware of rules laid down by government which was in contrast to Sood and Sood 2 and Kapoor et al, 18 the difference could be attributed to the difference in the sample size. Awareness about categories was quite high with 549 (89%) respondents, which was in contrast to Singh et al 8 This can be due to the fact that institutional participants invariably had high response rate about awareness of categories.…”

Knowledge, attitude and practice of biomedical waste management among health care personnel in a teaching institution in Haryana, India

“…Kapoor et al in their systematic review from dental teaching institutions in our country concluded that level of knowledge in study population regarding BMW was low and continuous training programmes were needed to enhance it. 13 Ninety one percent (91.6%) doctors correctly answered about different BMW categories whereas in a study by Pandit et al none could answer it correctly. 8 15 In a study by Shafee at al only 1.6% of the study population had knowledge regarding BMW categories which may be due to the fact that this study included only paramedical staff.…”

Assessment of Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices regarding Awareness of Biomedical Waste Management among Health Care Personnel: A Cross-sectional Survey

“…This is in accordance with the recently conducted research by Sharma et al 14 who showed the need to improve awareness level among health care workers. A systematic review of all the crosssectional studies conducted by Kapoor et al 15 showed…”