2025/04/01 by Kinemelo, Erasto, Simon, Edina
#Healthcare wastes #Tanzania #colour coding #facilities #risk factors #waste segregation
paper · doi:10.71637/tnhj.v25i1.876
Background: Segregation of healthcare waste is increasingly of great concern globally. Study assessed the practice of healthcare waste segregation in Bagamoyo Town Council, Tanzania Methods: The study employed quantitative research approaches with Cross-sectional study design. The questionnaire was employed for data collection from a sample of 80 participants. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22 was employed to analyse the data collected. Results: The study indicates that only 22.5% of healthcare workers had received training on proper segregation of healthcare wastes, 21.3% are aware of regulations, and >50% of healthcare workers were not aware on different bins used in segregation of healthcare wastes. These signify low level of knowledge. For institutional factors; 31.3% of health workers had clear guidelines and procedures for healthcare waste as emphasized, 37.5% of healthcare workers were emphasized on proper segregation of healthcare wastes, 31.3% of healthcare workers had proper containers for different types of healthcare wastes, 27.5% of healthcare workers supported that there are enough resources allocated to manage healthcare waste segregation, and 33.8% of healthcare workers were aware of the potential health and environmental risks on improper healthcare waste segregation. Conclusion: The practice of healthcare waste segregation in Bagamoyo Town Council is still poor due to the low level of knowledge of health staff involved in the daily healthcare waste segregation, poor institutional factors associated with healthcare waste segregation, and low risk perceptions of the health staff toward healthcare waste segregation.