School of Economics and Management, Southeast University, Nanjing, 211189, China.
School of Economics and Management, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, China.
Environ Monit Assess. 2019 Nov 26;191(12):770. doi: 10.1007/s10661-019-7971-5.
Appropriate clinical waste management is a critical concern in today's era. Resource-constrained countries agonize greatly over this issue in order to mitigate inappropriate clinical waste management practices. The goal of this study is to assess factors behind inappropriate waste management of small clinics in resource-constrained countries. We tested the hypothesis that negligence of government, knowledge and awareness, and financial burden are three key factors behind inappropriate solid waste management of small clinics. A two-phase survey including a pilot study and a main study was conducted for exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis, respectively, in the fourth largest city of Pakistan, i.e., Hyderabad. One sample t test was used to validate the hypothesis, the correlation between the three key factors, and the location of the clinics were established. These factors were found to have a contribution to inappropriate waste management of small clinics. The hypothesis was then validated, and all three factors were found to have no significant variation in responses with the contrast of three types of clinic locations, namely, low-, medium-, and high-income areas. Responses were almost identical and bear equal significance from all locations, the financial burden factor is at the highest, the second factor is the negligence of government, and the third factor is that of knowledge and awareness. This study highlights the factors that are usually neglected and can help to improve solid waste management of small clinics in resource-constrained countries.
适当的临床废物管理是当今时代的一个关键问题。资源有限的国家非常关注这个问题，以便减轻不当的临床废物管理做法。本研究的目的是评估资源有限国家中小诊所不当废物管理背后的因素。我们检验了以下假设：政府的疏忽、知识和意识以及经济负担是小诊所固体废物管理不当的三个关键因素。在巴基斯坦第四大城市海得拉巴，进行了包括试点研究和主要研究在内的两阶段调查，分别进行了探索性因素分析和验证性因素分析。使用单样本 t 检验验证假设，以及三个关键因素之间的相关性和诊所的位置。结果发现这些因素对小诊所的不当废物管理有一定的影响。然后验证了假设，发现所有三个因素在低收入、中收入和高收入地区三种诊所位置的对比中，其反应没有显著差异。来自所有地点的反应几乎相同，具有同等意义，经济负担因素最高，其次是政府的疏忽，第三个因素是知识和意识。本研究强调了通常被忽视的因素，有助于改善资源有限国家中小诊所的固体废物管理。
