Assessment of access to health information resources among health professionals working in HIV/AIDS and family health units of public health centers in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
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Date
2009-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Background: Universal access to information for health professionals is a prerequisite for meeting the
Millennium development Goals and achieving Health for All. In developing countries, a large proportion
of the population, including health professionals, has no or only poor access to HI outlets. The problem is
much serious in those working in Primary Health Care (PHC) settings. This study was conducted to
assess level of access to HI resources by health workers working in public health centers in Addis Ababa.
Objective: To assess HI access among health professionals working in HIV/AIDS related programmes
and family health clinics at primary public health institution in Addis Ababa.
Methods: A cross-sectional quantitative and qualitative (in-depth interview) study designs were
employed. Health professionals working on VCT/ART and family health at Addis Ababa public health
centres were study subjects. Self administered questionnaire were used on 169 subjects to assess the level
of access to HI resources
Results: The majority (94.8%) of respondents reported that they seek information when a need arises.
Seventy one(46.7%) of the respondents reported being computer literate and only 33.8% of the
respondents reported to have access to the internet from any source and internet access, have shown no
statistically significant association(p>0.05) with the variables . Access to different HI resources to the
health workers is limited; local or international journals (12%), library service (25.5%) and training
(58.8%). The over all HI access were observed by six types of resources where half (50.6%) of the
respondents were found to have satisfactory access to HI resources . working program were observed to
have association with access level. Those working in HIV/AIDS unit were found to have a 2.5 times
better likely hood of getting satisfactory HI sources as compared to those working in family health clinic
COR=2.66, with 95% CI(1.35, 5.23) and AOR= 2.5(1.2, 5.2).
Conclusion: Most study subjects have limited access to many of the HI resources; internet, journals,
library service with printed materials, and training. Therefore, more efforts has to be made to ensure a
sustainable HI access points to help those working in the ever changing health contexts in order to
maximize evidence based patient quality care.
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Assessment of access to health information resources