title: [SANITARY WASTE IN THE HOSPITAL SETTING: ATTITUDE OF HEALTH PROFESSIONALS TOWARD ADVANCED MANAGEMENT OF SANITARY WASTE].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study was to assess the attitude of nurse assistants, nurses, physicians, and lab technicians about advanced management of medical waste.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross-sectional study of Attitude and explanatory variable degree of concordance between Attitude, Knowledge, and Risk Perception. The sample size was 176 health professionals from three hospitals in,the Barcelona area. A questionnaire of 44 items with responses measured on a Likert scale type questions and free and spontaneous association and incomplete sentences was used.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Mean Attitude of health professionals surveyed was 4.40, with a standard deviation of 0.4 on a scale of 1-5, where 1 is considered a very negative and five a very positive Attitude. According to the values obtained with the Professional Category, the nurse assistants had an average value of 4.45 in Attitude, followed by nurses (4.36), physicians (4.27), and lab technicians (4.47). In the Pearson correlation, coefficients between Attitude, Risk Perception, Global Assessment, and level of Knowledge, values of r = 0.172 andp = 0.023 were obtained, r = -0.156 and p = 0.039 and r = 0.013 and p = 0.865 respectively. The mean values of the variables Knowledge, Risk Perception, Attitude, and Overall Rating were significantly different (ANOVA) in Knowledge level, according to Professional Category and Welfare Service, but not in other categories.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results of the current study suggest that health professionals generally have a very positive Attitude towards the management of medical waste. A significant relationship between Attitude and Risk Perception and Overall Rating was observed. In terms of the analysis of Variance, there was a significant difference in the level of Knowledge according to the Professional Category and the Assistance Service.
authors.forename: M Llum
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Torrens-Garcia
authors.forename: Gemma
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Martínez-Estalella
authors.forename: Jordi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Galimany-Masclans
authors.forename: Raúl
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sancho-Agredano
authors.forename: Pilar
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Torres-Egea
authors.forename: Núria
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Fabrellas
authors.forename: M Rosa
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Girbau-García
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D006801:Humans; D017744:Medical Waste Disposal / Q000379:methods; D010564:Personnel, Hospital
chemical_list: D017744:Medical Waste Disposal