PMID- 30555274
OWN - NLM
STAT- PubMed-not-MEDLINE
LR  - 20220330
IS  - 1444-1683 (Print)
IS  - 1447-056X (Electronic)
IS  - 1444-1683 (Linking)
VI  - 17
DP  - 2018
TI  - Practices related to sharps disposal among diabetic patients in Sri Lanka.
PG  - 12
LID - 10.1186/s12930-018-0049-7 [doi]
LID - 12
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients with diabetes on insulin therapy use sharps (e.g., needles) 
      on a regular basis and a considerable proportion of them, within their home 
      environments. These sharps and other bloodstained materials, if not disposed of 
      appropriately has the potential to be a public health hazard. OBJECTIVE: Our 
      objective was to explore the practices related to sharps disposal among patients 
      with diabetes from North Colombo Teaching Hospital (CNTH), Ragama, Sri Lanka. 
      METHODS: 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. RESULTS: 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. CONCLUSION: Patients 
      commonly used unsafe practices in home-based sharps disposal. These included 
      disposing of in the household garbage bin, burning sharps in the household 
      garbage dump and disposing of into the common garbage dump of the community. 
      Being male and being > 60 years of age was associated with a higher dependence on 
      family members for sharps disposal. Patient education and public resources for 
      sharps handling can help improve this situation.
FAU - Atukorala, K R
AU  - Atukorala KR
AD  - Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Sri 
      Jayewardenapura, Nugegoda, Sri Lanka.
FAU - Wickramasinghe, S I
AU  - Wickramasinghe SI
AD  - 2Centre for Online Health, School of Medicine, University of Queensland, 
      Brisbane, Australia. ISNI: 0000 0000 9320 7537. GRID: grid.1003.2
AD  - General Practitioner, Colombo, Sri Lanka.
FAU - Sumanasekera, R D N
AU  - Sumanasekera RDN
AD  - General Practitioner, Colombo, Sri Lanka.
FAU - Wickramasinghe, K H
AU  - Wickramasinghe KH
AD  - Senior Registrar in Ophthalmology, National Eye Hospital, Colombo, Sri Lanka.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
DEP - 20181207
PL  - England
TA  - Asia Pac Fam Med
JT  - Asia Pacific family medicine
JID - 101130840
PMC - PMC6286594
OTO - NOTNLM
OT  - Diabetes mellitus
OT  - Insulin
OT  - Sharps disposal
EDAT- 2018/12/18 06:00
MHDA- 2018/12/18 06:01
PMCR- 2018/12/07
CRDT- 2018/12/18 06:00
PHST- 2016/04/07 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2018/12/03 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2018/12/18 06:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2018/12/18 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2018/12/18 06:01 [medline]
PHST- 2018/12/07 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - 49 [pii]
AID - 10.1186/s12930-018-0049-7 [doi]
PST - epublish
SO  - Asia Pac Fam Med. 2018 Dec 7;17:12. doi: 10.1186/s12930-018-0049-7. eCollection 
      2018.