Healthcare Waste Generation Worldwide and Its Dependence on Socio-Economic and Environmental Factors

Minas Minoglou, Spyridoula Gerassimidou and Dimitrios Komilis
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Minas Minoglou: Laboratory of Solid and Hazardous Waste Management, Department of Environmental Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, Xanthi 67132, Greece
Spyridoula Gerassimidou: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK
Dimitrios Komilis: Laboratory of Solid and Hazardous Waste Management, Department of Environmental Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, Xanthi 67132, Greece

Sustainability, 2017, vol. 9, issue 2, 1-13

Abstract: This paper examines the dependence of the healthcare waste (HCW) generation rate on several social-economic and environmental parameters. Correlations were calculated between the quantities of healthcare waste generated (expressed in kg/bed/day) versus economic indices (GDP, healthcare expenditure per capita), social indices (HDI, IHDI, MPI, life expectancy, mean years of schooling, HIV prevalence, deaths due to tuberculosis and malaria, and under five mortality rate), and an environmental sustainability index (total CO 2 emissions) from 42 countries worldwide. The statistical analysis included the examination of the normality of the data and the formation of linear multiple regression models to further investigate the correlation between those indices and HCW generation rates. Pearson and Spearman correlation coefficients were also calculated for all pairwise comparisons. Results showed that the life expectancy, the HDI, the mean years of schooling and the CO 2 emissions positively affect the HCW generation rates and can be used as statistical predictors of those rates. The resulting best reduced regression model included the life expectancy and the CO 2 emissions and explained 85% of the variability of the response.

Keywords: healthcare waste; generation rates; economic factors; social factors; correlation; regression modeling (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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