Knowledge of infection prevention and control practices among health care workers caring for patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19: a cross-sectional study (original) (raw)
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2020
Background: WHO declared COVID-19 a global pandemic on 11th March 2020. Due to the lack of adequate treatment and approved vaccines, proper infection control practices are the only effective tools for prevention and control of COVID-19 infection among the health care facilities. Objectives: This study aimed to assess the infection control knowledge, practices, and perceived barriers towards COVID-19 among physicians working at Ain Shams University hospitals. Methods: Cross-sectional was carried out among a sample of physicians working at Ain Shams university hospitals, Cairo, Egypt, by using an online questionnaire. The design of the questionnaire was based mainly on the WHO guidance for infection prevention and control during health care when novel coronavirus infection is suspected and CDC guidance for COVID-19. Results: A total of 318 physicians with different job titles and specialties participated in this study, results showed average infection control knowledge (the mean corre...
Journal of Community Health, 2020
Healthcare workers (HCWs) are at the frontline defense against the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Inadequate knowledge and incorrect attitudes among HCWs can directly influence practices and lead to delayed diagnosis, poor infection control practice, and spread of disease. This study aimed to assess the knowledge, perception, and attitude of the Egyptian HCWs towards the COVID-19 disease. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in Egypt, among 407 HCWs using a self-administered questionnaire. The mean correct answer rate was 80.4% with a mean knowledge score of 18.5 ± 2.7 out of 24. A positive correlation between knowledge and attitude scores was detected (r = 0.215, p < 0.001). About 83.1% of our participants reported that they were afraid of being infected with COVID-19, and 89.2% stated that they were more susceptible to COVID-19 infection as compared to others. Unavailability of personal protective equipment (PPE), fear of transmitting the disease to their families, and social stigma were the most frequently reported reasons for increased risk perception. The overall knowledge level of HCWs was generally good especially among physicians. A positive attitude was detected among allied health professionals more than physicians. Risk perception was high among HCWs. Causes of increased risk perception need to considered by the government and the Egyptian Ministry of Health.
Infection and Drug Resistance, 2021
Background: Since December 29, 2019, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has been spreading and is associated with notoriously increased morbidity and mortality of populations worldwide, including Ethiopia. Medicine and the healthcare system have been challenged by both first and second-waves of SARS-CoV-2. During this entire crisis, the main purpose of this study was to determine the current evidence on the level of awareness and prevention practice of healthcare workers (HCWs) at the district primary hospital, Delghi Primary Hospital (DPH) regarding COVID-19 in the overall effort to control the spread of the virus. Methods: Institutional-based descriptive cross-sectional analysis was performed between late August and September 20, 2020. Participants of the study were HCWs with various occupations at DPH, North West Gondar, Ethiopia. In this study, among 112 health professions, we included a total of 104 HCWs. Written consent was obtained for willingness of the study participants from the DPH administrative office. Then, using a pre-tested, structured, and self-administered questionnaire, data were collected. The questionnaire included sociodemographics, sources of information, knowledge, and practice measures regarding COVID-19. The collected data were analyzed through IBM SPSS version 20. As a cutoff value, ≥8 out of 15 knowledge questions and ≥7 out of 14 practice questions were considered good knowledge and practice, respectively. Results: The result of this study showed the majority of the respondents were male (71/104, (68.3%)), with a median age of 28 (minimum age 20 and maximum age 50) years. Thus, 94.2% (n=98/104) was the overall rate of correctly answered questions out of 15 knowledge questions. However, 40.6% of them had poor prevention practices. 73.1% of participants used regular hand-washing with soap and 64.4% used hand sanitizer and handshake avoidance equally for prevention purposes. Whereas, social distancing rule and mask-wearing were reported as impracticable by 55.8% and 44.2%, respectively. Conclusion: 94.2% of HCWs had a good level of knowledge about COVID-19; in contrast, lack of preventive practice was observed. This implies that there is a gap between knowledge and implementation of preventive measures toward the disease.
Open Access Macedonian Journal of Medical Sciences
BACKGROUND: The core of the healthcare system is healthcare workers (HCWs). A skilled and healthy workforce is essential during a health emergency like the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic. AIM: This study evaluated knowledge of COVID-19, its preventive measures, and factors affecting it among HCWs at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), Cairo University to determine their desire to obtain the available COVID-19 vaccines in addition to the factors that may affect it. METHODS: This descriptive cross-sectional study included 151 HCWs in Egypt using a self-administered questionnaire created by the researchers after examining the information supplied by the Egyptian Ministry of Health and Population, World Health Organization, and the relevant research regarding knowledge assessment. Initially, demographic data were collected. Participants were asked their source of knowledge about COVID-19 and their intent to receive the available vaccines. Knowledge about COVID-19 and prev...
Background: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a global outbreak caused by novel SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2). Study aims to evaluate knowledge and practices of healthcare workers (HCW) regarding infection prevention and control of corona virus disease Material and methods: A cross sectional validation study was conducted. Study was conducted at department of Medicine, Pakistan Ordinance Factory Hospital, Wah Cantt. Study duration was 2 months (May 2020-June2020)A sample size of 217 HCW was calculated using WHO calculator. HCW were selected through non probability sampling (consecutive). Ethical permission was taken and research consent was signed by each participant. SPSS version 24 was used for analysis purpose. Post stratification fissure exact and chi-square test was applied. We found p value ≤0.05 as statistically significant. Results: Total 217 HCW were included in our study. Out of them, 85 (39.2%) were male and 132 (60.8%) were female in our study. Mean age of HCW was 34.5±2.4SD. In knowledge assessment majority of HCW had fair knowledge (46.5%), followed by good (30%) and poor knowledge (23.5%) regarding corona virus associated infection control and prevention. In practice assessment, among all those, 38.2% HCW showed better practices while 61.8% showed poor practices. Knowledge is significantly associated with virus transmission mode (p = 0.00), close contact (p = 0.000), protection from COVID-19 in triage area (p = 0.000), wearing PPE (p = 0.000) etc. Conclusion: Corona virus disease is a major challenge in resource limited countries. Healthcare workers showed relatively improved knowledge and practices regarding infection prevention and control in this COVID-19 Pandemic.
2022
Background Emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic created unexpected challenges for health care workers. The global and national supply chain system was disrupted, and affected infection, prevention and control practices. This study aimed at documenting health workers knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) on IPC in Nigeria during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods The descriptive, mixed-methods cross-sectional study was conducted in Ebonyi, Ondo and Niger states in October 2020. A structured questionnaire that asked healthcare providers about their current knowledge, attitudes and practices and changes among them following the start of the pandemic was complemented by semi-structured interviews that were audio recorded, transcribed and analysed in Atlas.ti. Quantitative data were entered into REDCap and cleaned, transformed and analysed using descriptive statistics in SPSS version 25.0 Findings from the qualitative interviews were used to explain the trends observed from quantitative study. Results There were demographic differences between community and facility-based health workers in our population. CHIPS that agreed to have not attended IPC training were 54.9% and 71.4% for HCWs, compared to those that attended IPC training during COVID-19 pandemic (CHIPS-62.8%, HCWs-53.4%). Health care workers had good knowledge of general IPC, attitude and practice of IPC during COVID-19 pandemic. However, the knowledge of the relative effectiveness of prevention measures was low. The mean knowledge scores were greater among facility-based workers compared to community based healthcare workers (p= 0.001). Self-reported IPC practices increased during the pandemic compared to prior to the pandemic, with the exception of the use of N-95 masks and hand sanitizer. Conclusion This study found good general IPC knowledge and practices in our study population. There is need for continued support for correct hand hygiene, and to reinforce the relative importance of different IPC practices to ensure adherence to COVID-19 preventive measures. The study recommends sustained training and supply of PPEs and other materials needed for IPC reminds policy makers that budget line speci c to COVID-19 response across all the levels of health What Is Already Known On This Topic Proper infection prevention and control is critical at preventing the spread of COVID-19 amongst health care workers, but disrupted health systems and limited resources restricted facility's ability to respond adequately
Journal of Infection Prevention
Background Infection prevention and control (IPC) practices against COVID-19 should be adopted by healthcare workers (HCWs) at their workplaces to protect themselves, their patients, and their families from infection. Purpose This study aimed to describe the relationship between the healthcare-related COVID-19 infection prevention measures adopted by HCWs and their SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity. Research Design This cross-sectional study was conducted during the second and third COVID-19 waves in Egypt. Study Sample The study included 416 unvaccinated HCWs from 39 hospitals in Egypt. Data Collection Sociodemographic data, as well as COVID-19 IPC measures done at work, and protective measures performed by their healthcare facilities were collected. SARS-CoV-2 spike protein antibodies were measured by ELISA. Results 58.2% of participants were seropositive for SARS-CoV-2. Among the previously undiagnosed HCWs, 125/271 (46.1%) were seropositive. Predictors of seropositivity were rural resid...
The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 2020
COVID-19, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, is spreading rapidly worldwide, with devastating consequences for patients, healthcare workers, health systems, and economies. As it reaches low-and middle-income countries, the pandemic puts healthcare workers at high risk and challenges the abilities of healthcare systems to respond to the crisis. This study measured levels of knowledge and preparedness regarding COVID-19 among physicians and nurses. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among healthcare workers in Libya between February 26 and March 10, 2020. We obtained 1,572 valid responses of a possible 2,000 (78.6%) participants from 21 hospitals, of which 65.1% were from physicians and 34.9% from nurses. The majority of participants (70%) used social media as a source of information. A total of 47.3% of doctors and 54.7% of nurses received adequate training on how to effectively use personal protective equipment. Low confidence in managing suspected COVID-19 patients was reported by 83.8% of participants. Furthermore, 43.2% of healthcare workers were aware of proper hand hygiene techniques. Less than 7% of participants received training on how to manage COVID-19 cases, whereas 20.6% of doctors and 26.3% of nurses felt that they were personally prepared for the outbreak. Awareness and preparedness for the pandemic were low among frontline workers during the study. Therefore, an effective educational training program should be implemented to ensure maintenance of appropriate practices during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Impact Of Health Care Worker’s Knowledge And Attitude On Their COVID-19 Infection Risk
Microbes and Infectious Diseases, 2020
Background: High number of losses may occur among health care workers (HCWs) who are the key contributors in the COVID-19 battle. Objectives: To explore the baseline knowledge and perception of HCWs who will join working in our isolation unit, correct the wrong believes and investigate their safety at the end of their quarantine period. Method: The study was implemented on 206 HCWs [133 nurses, 28 physicians, 8 pharmacists, and 37 technicians and housekeepers] by assessing HCWʼs knowledge and attitude via on-line questionnaire, improve misconceptions via health care program prior to start their work in the unit and inspect the COVID-19 infection by laboratory and radiological investigations. The inclusion criteria were being HCWs in the isolation unit of COVID-19, National Liver Institute, Menoufia University, Egypt for in the period from of June 10 th to August 10 th , 2020. Results: Base-line questionnaire results revealed good knowledge and positive attitude of HCWs towards 16-COVID-19 items in spite of ignoring the incubation period of the disease. There was significant positive attitude of the HCWs groups, and the total group attitude showed a significant good knowledge score. Health care workers had highly significant good knowledge score and positive attitude towards the importance of training on personal protective equipment (PPE) donning and doffing. Continuous health education on infection control practices and importance of social distancing during the isolation period was emphasized. At the end of the quarantine period, the infection rate was 5.8%. The HCWs with positive SARS-CoV-2 showed negative COVID-Ab results, significant changes in their C-T scan findings and lab findings. Conclusion: Health care workers with good knowledge, perception and who follow strict precautions in an isolation unit are the basis of success in winning the battle against SARS-CoV aiming at keeping HCWs safety with optimum patient care and less harm to the health facilities.
PLOS ONE
Background Despite under-reporting, health workers (HWs) accounted for 2 to 30% of the reported COVID-19 cases worldwide. In line with data from other countries, Jordan recorded multiple case surges among HWs. Methods Based on the standardized WHO UNITY case-control study protocol on assessing risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection in HWs, HWs with confirmed COVID-19 were recruited as cases from eight hospitals in Jordan. HWs exposed to COVID-19 patients in the same setting but without infection were recruited as controls. The study lasted approximately two months (from early January to early March 2021). Regression models were used to analyse exposure risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection in HWs; conditional logistic regressions were utilized to estimate odds ratios (ORs) adjusted for the confounding variables. Results A total of 358 (102 cases and 256 controls) participants were included in the analysis. The multivariate analysis showed that being exposed to COVID-19 patients withi...