Factors associated with knowledge, attitudes and preventive practices towards COVID-19 in health care professionals in Lima, Peru

Abstract

Background: Nowadays, we are facing a disease caused by SARS-CoV- 2, known globally as COVID-19, which is considered a threat to global health due to its high contagiousness and rapid spread. Methods: Analytical cross-sectional study in 302 health professionals. An online questionnaire consisting of questions about knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) towards COVID-19 was applied. Socio- demographic, occupational and comorbidities factors were explored. Simple and multiple logistic regression models were used to identify factors associated with KAP. Results: Of the total, 25.2%, 31.5% and 37.4% had high levels of knowledge, preventive practices and risk perception attitudes respectively. Being married aOR=6.75 CI(1.46-31.2) p=0.014, having a master's degree aOR=0.4, CI(0.21-0.80) p=0.009, having a working day with less than ten hours ORa=0.49 CI(0.25-0.95) p=0.036 and obesity aOR=0.38 CI (0.15-0.95) p=0.039 were associated with a low level of knowledge of COVID-19. The variables associated with preventive practices were being over the age of 50 aOR=0.52 CI(0.27-0.98) p=0.007, working in the hospitalization area aOR=1.86 CI(1.08-3.18) p= 0.018 and having comorbidities such as arterial hypertension aOR=0.28 CI(0.081-0.99) p=0.02 and obesity aOR=0.35 CI(0.14-0.83) p=0.019. In relation to negative attitudes towards COVID-19, it was found that physical contact with patients with a confirmed diagnosis aOR=1.84 CI (1.14-2.97) p=0.006 and having asthma aOR=2.13 CI(1.081-4.22) p=0.029 were associated with these attitudes. Conclusion: Our study revealed that health professionals have an insufficient level of knowledge of COVID-19. This is why we recommend implementing strategies such as health literacy programs among health care workers. Thus, they can help develop positive

Knowledge, attitudes and practices related to Covid-19 among health professionals in El Jadida Province, Morocco

“…This was consistent with similar studies conducted in China, Egypt, Vietnam, Pakistan, Uganda, Iran, and Nigeria that showed that health care workers had a high level of knowledge about COVID-19 [2,17,21,26,33,37,43]. Nevertheless, other studies have reported a low level of knowledge among health care professionals [9,30].…”

“…This study showed, in line with Zhang et al [43], the association between the level of COVID-19 practice and their working time. In summary, knowledge may lead to better practices [30,35] but could not be considered as the driver of health workers attitudes and behaviors. Thus, policy makers need not to rely only on COVID-19 continuing education programs [14] to change the attitudes and behaviours of health workers.…”

“…Managing the consequences of COVID-19 pandemic requires resilient health systems that are capable of adapting to diverse global political, economic, social and health systems challenges [25,28]. Building resilient health systems requires qualified, motivated, and knowledgeable human resources for health (30,34,35,43).…”

“…Frontline healthcare workers are considered to be at high risk of contracting and spreading COVID-19 within healthcare facilities [23,30,33,35]. They suffered from increased occupational health risks (extended working hours, stress, burnout, and fatigue) with an impact on their mental health and psychological well-being [4,16,20,23,30,34,36,42]. Consequences of increased occupational health risk are increased rate of medication errors, staff injuries (13,18) delayed diagnosis.…”

Associated factors with adherence to preventive behaviors related to COVID-19 among medical students in the university of Monastir, Tunisia

“…The distribution of scores by smoking status is described in Fig 3 . The lowest scores were recorded among students who use chicha (33 [27-39]), E cigarette (35 [31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40]) and especially those who use several forms of tobacco at the same time (31 [23-38.5]).…”