Knowledge, attitude and practice of health care workers towards personal protective equipment in the era of Covid-19
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Date
2020-01
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Addis Abeba University
Abstract
Background; in this era of COVID-19 epidemic health care workers are at increased risk of
contracting the disease. The WHO estimates that around 20% of HCW have already acquired the
infection in the world worst affected areas. It is a paramount important to prevent spread of infection
among the HCWs as they can be a source of community transmission. There are some evidences
showing there is a gap in knowledge, attitude and practice of personal protective equipment use
among the health care workers.
Objective: To assess knowledge, attitude and practice of PPE among HCWs that are currently
working in Tikur Anbessa Specialized hospital and Eka Kotebe general hospital, Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia.
Methodology: This cross-sectional, descriptive study was conducted on HCWs of TASH and EKGH
in the month of October 2020. Participants were selected using convenient sampling method and 45
itemed, web-based, self-administered questionnaires were used for data collection via internet access.
Data analysis was done using SPSS version 26. Socio-demographic and important information
assessing KAP were collected.
Result: A total of 277 HCWs responded to the questionnaire from both centers. The mean age was
30.77±5.78 years. Among them majority was male (n=158, 57%) and majority were from TASH 261
(94.2%). Medical doctors constituted 73.2% (n=203) followed by nurses (n=70, 25.3%). On average,
38.6% had 8hours of work per day. Among the responders, 18.8% (n=51) uses informal ways to
gather information and 19.1% (n=53) of HCWs tested positive for COVID-19. Knowledge, attitude
and practices regarding PPE use among these HCWs were 73.9%, 40.3% and 57.7% respectively.
Conclusion and Recommendation: This survey shows that there is poor attitude and practice of PPE
especially N95 use among HCWs. Institution based training and inclusive updates needs to be
implemented.
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Keywords
Protective equipment , Covid-19