Lakhani Bhanu, Givati Assaf
Associate Dentist, Park Avenue Dental Care, 16a, Park Avenue, Dunfermline, Scotland, KY12 7HX, UK.
Senior Lecturer in Public Health Education, Department of Population Health Science, King´s College London, UK.
Br Dent J. 2024 Oct 4. doi: 10.1038/s41415-024-7907-5.
Background High carbon emissions associated with clinical waste disposal in dentistry pose an environmental and public health concern. Current NHS guidelines do not mandate sustainable waste management resulting in recyclable dental waste being incinerated. In the absence of such policies, decision to implement sustainable waste management practices falls upon dental professionals who rely on their own knowledge and beliefs about the environmental impact of dentistry. Literature exploring barriers to sustainable waste management by dental professionals require further insight on dental professionals' decision-making processes. Therefore, this study uses a behavioural decision-making model - the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) - to explore sustainable waste segregation behaviour of dental professionals based on their attitudes and beliefs about sustainable dentistry and climate change.Methods Fifteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with dental professionals between October and November 2022 in dental practices in Fife, Scotland. Interviews were analysed using Braun and Clarke's reflexive thematic data analysis.Findings Following thematic analysis, eight themes were identified around the participants' attitudes, perceived subjective norms and perceived behavioural control, pointing at the way knowledge gaps and lack of awareness were often linked with attitudes which are associated with low intention to execute sustainable waste management.Conclusions TPB offers a useful framework to understand waste segregation behaviour of dental professionals. Further studies are required to further establish sustainable waste management behaviour.
牙科临床废物处理所产生的高碳排放引发了环境和公共卫生方面的担忧。英国国家医疗服务体系（NHS）目前的指导方针并未强制要求进行可持续的废物管理，导致可回收的牙科废物被焚烧。在缺乏此类政策的情况下，实施可持续废物管理做法的决定落在了牙科专业人员身上，他们依赖自己对牙科环境影响的知识和信念。探索牙科专业人员在可持续废物管理方面障碍的文献需要对牙科专业人员的决策过程有更深入的了解。因此，本研究使用一种行为决策模型——计划行为理论（TPB）——来基于牙科专业人员对可持续牙科和气候变化的态度与信念，探索他们的可持续废物分类行为。
2022年10月至11月期间，在苏格兰法夫郡的牙科诊所对牙科专业人员进行了15次半结构化访谈。使用布劳恩和克拉克的反思性主题数据分析方法对访谈进行了分析。
经过主题分析，围绕参与者的态度、感知到的主观规范和感知到的行为控制确定了八个主题，指出知识差距和意识缺乏往往与态度相关联，而这些态度与执行可持续废物管理的低意愿相关。
计划行为理论为理解牙科专业人员的废物分类行为提供了一个有用的框架。需要进一步的研究来进一步确立可持续废物管理行为。
