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Is there a difference between urban and rural areas in the disposal of home medical care waste? 13 years of nation-wide repeated cross-sectional study in Japan

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Abstract

Home medical care (HMC) is advancing not only in Japan but also throughout the world. In Japan, HMC waste is legally classified as municipal waste. Nevertheless, some municipalities do not collect some or all the HMC waste because of fear of infection. Therefore, this study was conducted to clarify the following two issues: First, have the municipalities made progress in collecting and appropriate disposal of HMC waste in the past 13 years? Second, is there a difference between a large city and a small city in terms of appropriate disposal progress? A total of 687 municipalities published the treatment of HMC waste. Currently, 42 municipalities collected all HMC waste. 236 municipalities were collecting HMC waste except for self-injection needle. 117 municipalities were collecting HMC waste except for self-injection needle and Syringe. The collection status of HMC waste was better in cities with high population than in cities with low population. HMC waste collection status was progressed over 13 years. However, more than 60% of the municipality staff stated that they could not avoid being anxious about infection caused by HMC waste. We suggest that providing HMC waste education to the municipalities wherein these efforts have not yet progressed is important.

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Acknowledgements

We thank all the municipality staff for their cooperation in the survey.

Funding

This study was supported by the Yuumi Memorial Foundation for Home Health Care (2006-2007 and 2018-2019).

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Correspondence to Yukihiro Ikeda.

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10163_2020_1132_MOESM1_ESM.docx

Reference picture 1. a) Nasal mask used for home oxygen therapy. b) Infusion bag. c) Pen type self-injector. All photos are from Reference 11. (DOCX 43 KB)

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Ikeda, Y., Fujiwara, H. & Sasaki, M. Is there a difference between urban and rural areas in the disposal of home medical care waste? 13 years of nation-wide repeated cross-sectional study in Japan. J Mater Cycles Waste Manag 23, 323–329 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10163-020-01132-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10163-020-01132-0

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