Analysis of healthcare waste and factors affecting the amount of hazardous healthcare waste in a university hospital

The ever-increasing amount of waste produced by the healthcare system is a growing burden worldwide. To effectively reduce waste, it is essential to know exactly what it is and to explore the factors influencing its amount. This study aims to analyze the amount of healthcare waste (HCW) and the change in that amount over time, as well as to explore and quantify the factors that influence hazardous healthcare waste (HHCW) in a university hospital. Descriptive statistical analysis, Spearman’s correlation and robust regression were performed to characterize the data. Our analysis revealed that the amount of HCW has been increased annually by 2.11%, and the generation rate ranges between 2.53 and 2.68 kg/bed/day. The amount of HHCW has increased by 20.19% over the 5-year period studied, with a generation rate varying between 1.13 and 1.31 kg/bed/day. It was found that surgical specialisms, anesthesiology and intensive care, and emergency patient care have higher rates of hazardous waste production. A significant positive correlation was found between the amount of hazardous waste and the incidence of healthcare-associated infections (r = 0.704), and the number of diapers used by adults and children (r = 0.555), whose significant predictive role was also confirmed by the robust regression.