Knowledge, perception of risk of disease, and infection prevention and control practices among healthcare workers and support staff toward COVID-19 in an Ethiopian referral hospital: a cross-sectional survey

Authors

  • Esubalew T. Mindaye Department of Surgery, St. Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical College, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
  • Bekalu Assaminew Department of Surgery, St. Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical College, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
  • Goytom K. Tesfay Department of Surgery, St. Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical College, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3396/ijic.v17.20726

Keywords:

COVID-19, pandemic, survey, knowledge, occupational exposure, Ethiopia

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a pandemic affecting over 106 million and killing over 2.3 million people. Inadequate knowledge of the disease coupled with scarce or improper use of infection prevention and control (IPC) measures by healthcare workers (HCWs) and support staff may be contributing to the rapid spread of infection. This survey aims to assess knowledge, risk perception, and precaution practices of HCWs and support staff toward COVID-19 under resource-constrained circumstances at a major referral hospital in Ethiopia. An institution-based survey was conducted in April 2020 using 422 subjects selected by stratified random sampling. A five-section survey instrument was distributed, and the collected responses were cleaned and entered into Epi data (v3.1) and exported to SPSS (v.26) for further statistical analysis. The survey found that about 58% of the HCWs and support staff in the hospital appear to have adequate awareness and perceive COVID-19 to be a high-risk disease. Seven out of 10 subjects practice some form of IPC measures. However, the knowledge among allied HCWs and support staff appears to be inadequate. Gender, occupation, and years in service correlated with the level of awareness. Of those surveyed, 78% were concerned about the lack of personal protective equipment and perceived public transportation to be a high-risk factor for the transmission of infection. Additional campaigns may be necessary to reinforce existing knowledge of HCWs, but more emphasis should be geared toward educating allied HCWs and support staff.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Yin Y, Wunderink RG. MERS, SARS and other coronaviruses as causes of pneumonia. Respirology 2018; 23: 130–7. doi: 10.1111/resp.13196

Zhou W. The coronavirus prevention handbook: 101 based tips that could save your life. New York, NY: Skyhorse Publishing; 2020.

Eurosurveillance Editorial Team. Note from the editors: World Health Organization declares novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) sixth public health emergency of international concern. Euro Surveill 2020; 25: 2019–20. doi: 10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2020.25.5.200131e

Sohrabi C, Alsafi Z, O’Neill N, Khan M, Kerwan A, Al-Jabir A, et al. World Health Organization declares global emergency: A review of the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19). Int J Surg 2020; 76: 71–6. doi: 10.1016/j.ijsu.2020.02.034

Worldometer. Coronavirus update (live): Cases and deaths from COVID-19 virus pandemic. L’Aquila: Department of Life, Health and Environmental Science, University of L’Aquila, Worldometers; 2021.

Zhou P, Huang Z, Xiao Y, Huang X, Fan XG. Protecting Chinese healthcare workers while combatting the 2019 novel coronavirus. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2020; 41: 745–6. doi: 10.1017/ice.2020.60

Erdem H, Lucey DR. Healthcare worker infections and deaths due to COVID-19: A survey from 37 nations and a call for WHO to post national data on their website. Int J Infect Dis 2021; 102: 239–41. doi: 10.1016/j.ijid.2020.10.064

Wang D, Hu B, Hu C, Zhu F, Liu X, Zhang J, et al. Clinical characteristics of 138 hospitalized patients with 2019 novel coronavirus-infected pneumonia in Wuhan, China. JAMA 2020; 323: 1061–9. doi: 10.1001/jama.2020.1585

Lu D, Wang H, Yu R, Yang H, Zhao Y. Integrated infection control startegy to minimize nosocomial infection of coronavirus disease 2019 among ENT healthcare workers. J Hosp Infect 2020; 104: 454–5. doi: 10.1016/j.jhin.2020.02.018

Bhagavathula AS, Aldhaleei WA, Rahmani J, Mahabadi MA, Bandari DK. Novel coronavirus (COVID-19) knowledge and perceptions: A survey on healthcare workers. JMIR Public Health Surveill 2020; 6: e19160. doi: 10.2196/19160

SPHMMC. St. Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical College at a glance. St. Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical College; 2020. Available from: https://sphmmc.edu.et/about/ [cited 12 April 2020].

Olum R, Chekwech G, Wekha G, Nassozi DR, Bongomin F. Coronavirus disease-2019: Knowledge, attitude, and practices of health care workers at Makerere University Teaching Hospitals, Uganda. Front Public Health 2020; 8: 1–9. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2020.00181

Wang J, Zhou M, Liu F. Reasons for healthcare workers becoming infected with novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in China. J Hosp Infect 2020; 105: 100–1. doi: 10.1016/j.jhin.2020.03.002

Clements JM. Knowledge and behaviors toward COVID-19 among US residents during the early days of the pandemic. JMIR Public Health Surveill 2020; 6: e19161. doi: 10.2196/19161

Zhong BL, Luo W, Li HM, Zhang Q-Q, Liu X-G, Li W-T, et al. Knowledge, attitudes, and practices towards COVID-19 among chinese residents during the rapid rise period of the COVID-19 outbreak: A quick online cross-sectional survey. Int J Biol Sci 2020; 16: 1745–52. doi: 10.7150/ijbs.45221

Giao H, Han NTN, Van Khanh T, Ngan VK, Van Tam V, Le An P. Knowledge and attitude toward COVID-19 among healthcare workers at District 2 Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City. Asian Pac J Trop Med 2020; 13: 260–5. doi: 10.4103/1995-7645.280396

Gerhold L. COVID-19: Risk perception and coping strategies. PsyArXiv; 2020. Available from: https://psyarxiv.com/xmpk4/ (preprint) [cited 23 September 2020].

Zhang M, Zhou M, Tang F, Wang Y, Nie H, Zhang L, et al. Knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding COVID-19 among healthcare workers in Henan, China. J Hosp Infect 2020; 105: 183–7. doi: 10.1016/j.jhin.2020.04.012.

Maleki S, Najafi F, Farhadi K, Fakhri M, Hosseini F, Naderi M. Knowledge, attitude and behavior of health care workers in the prevention of COVID-19. Research Square; 2020. Available from: https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-23113/v1 (preprint) [cited 25 April 2020].

Alfahan A, Alhabib S, Abdulmajeed I, Rahman S, Bamuhair S. In the era of corona virus: Health care professionals’ knowledge, attitudes, and practice of hand hygiene in Saudi primary care centers: A cross-sectional study. J Community Hosp Intern Med Perspect 2016; 6: 32151. doi: 10.3402/jchimp.v6.32151

Shoman H, Karafillakis E, Rawaf S. The link between the West African ebola outbreak and health systems in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone: A systematic review. Global Health 2017; 13: 1–22. doi: 10.1186/s12992-016-0224-2

Raab M, Pfadenhauer LM, Millimouno TJ, Hoelscher M, Froeschl G. Knowledge, attitudes and practices towards viral haemorrhagic fevers amongst healthcare workers in urban and rural public healthcare facilities in the N’zérékoré prefecture, Guinea: A cross-sectional study. BMC Publ Health 2020; 20: 1–8.

Additional Files

Published

2021-06-03

How to Cite

Mindaye, E. T., Assaminew, B., & Tesfay, G. K. (2021). Knowledge, perception of risk of disease, and infection prevention and control practices among healthcare workers and support staff toward COVID-19 in an Ethiopian referral hospital: a cross-sectional survey. International Journal of Infection Control, 17(1). https://doi.org/10.3396/ijic.v17.20726

Issue

Section

Original Articles