THE EFFECT OF WASTE MANAGEMENT ON INFECTION IN TEACHING HOSPITALS OF MEDICAL SCIENCES UNIVERSITY OF QAZVIN abstract
Clinical waste management plays an important role in infection prevention and improper management of medical waste is one of the reasons in increase of infectious diseases. The effective medical waste management plan is one of the main issues of infection control in hospitals and it plays crucial role in the quality of the health care services. This study is conducted to explain the impact of waste management and infection in teaching hospitals of Medical Sciences University of Qazvin. The present study was a descriptive- analytical design. The study population was 300 staffs from six teaching hospitals of Medical Sciences University of Qazvin and they were selected randomly. A medical waste management and in infection questionnaire was used with 40 questions and the alpha was 0.81. Descriptive statistics (Frequency, mean and standard derivation) was applied. To test the effect of variables, parametric tests of Pearson correlation coefficient and regression were used. ANOVA test was applied to compare the dimensions and mean variables. Hypotheses were tested by inference statistics. Kolmogorov smirnov test was used to test normality. Also, for data analysis, SPSS, 16 Software was used. To investigate the effect of waste management components on infection, Pearson correlation coefficient and linear regression were used. The correlation coefficient was 0.844 and it indicated direct effect between the variables. Sig value was 0.00 and as it is greater than alpha value, we can say, medical waste management had influence on infection. In other words, medical waste management had influence on infection reduction. The effect of medical waste management on infection reduction is of great importance. This study besides indicating the direct effect of medical waste management on infection showed that the more the management components are observed properly, the better the clinical infection condition. Generally, medical waste management plays an important role in infection reduction and by only having a clinical definition of medical infection evaluating a patient; we cannot reduce it or improve the health of medical community.