Practices related to sharps disposal among diabetic patients in Sri Lanka

Our objective was to explore the practices related to sharps disposal among patients with diabetes from North Colombo Teaching Hospital (CNTH), Ragama, Sri Lanka. We conducted a cross-sectional study on 158 patients with diabetes from the CNTH. Patients had to use sharps for the daily management of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Asia Pacific Family Medicine 2018, Vol.17 (1)
Main Authors: Atukorala, K. R, Wickramasinghe, S. I, Sumanasekera, R. D. N, Wickramasinghe, K. H
Format: Report
Language:English
Subjects:
Behavior
Care and treatment
Diabetics
Health behavior
Hypodermic needles
Hypodermic syringes
Medical wastes
Refuse and refuse disposal
Surveys
Syringes
Waste management
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Summary:Our objective was to explore the practices related to sharps disposal among patients with diabetes from North Colombo Teaching Hospital (CNTH), Ragama, Sri Lanka. We conducted a cross-sectional study on 158 patients with diabetes from the CNTH. Patients had to use sharps for the daily management of their disease for inclusion into the study group. Data were collected on sharps disposal practices using an interviewer-administered questionnaire. Clinic records were also used as a secondary data source. Most patients, 153/158 (96.8%) used syringes to inject insulin. Forty-three patients (27%) involved others (e.g., family) when disposing of sharps. Used sharps were commonly disposed to the household garbage bin by 66 participants (41.7%). Other methods used for sharps disposal were: sharps container, toilet pit, household garbage dump and indiscriminate measures. Importantly most patients, 147 (93%) had received no information on how to dispose of sharps after usage.
ISSN:1444-1683
DOI:10.1186/s12930-018-0049-7