Knowledge, Attitude and Behavior of Health Care Workers in the Prevention of COVID-19

Abstract

Background Preserving the health of health care workers (HCWs) has now become one of the main concerns of all countries affected by the coronavirus. Maintaining the health of the hospital workers, especially the medical staff, requires knowledge and awareness, followed by proper behavior for disease prevention and transmission. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the knowledge, attitude and behavior of HCWs to ward patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19.Methods A cross-sectional study was designed to assess the level of knowledge, attitude and behavior of 191 HCWs of Taleghani Hospital in Kermanshah toward patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19. Responses to the checklists of demographic characteristics, knowledge, attitude, and behavior toward patients with COVID-19 were analyzed by SPSS 22.Results 191 subjects (118 females and 73 males) with a mean age of 34.7 ± 8.6 years participated in this study. The level of knowledge of HCWs in this study was excellent regarding the ways of transmitting the disease such as close contact with the patient with suspected Coronavirus (99%). According to their positions, participants had a significant difference in their knowledge of asymptomatic patients (P < 0.001). The study found that 14% of the HCWs did not have the necessary knowledge about the symptoms of COVID-19, indicating poor knowledge of the HCWs at the beginning of the disease epidemic. The results obtained from the evaluation of HCWs attitudes showed that some workers believed that protective and preventive measures should only be applied when managing people with severe symptoms (P < 0.001). Finally, there was a significant difference in behavior and adherence to protective and preventive measures between the participants when facing patients with severe symptoms and without symptoms of COVID-19 (P = 0.05).Conclusion Knowledge, attitude, and behavior toward COVID-19 infection and facing patients with severe and overt symptoms among health care workers in the hospital were Excellent, but these were insufficient for patients without obvious symptoms. These results suggest that additional training regarding subclinical cases of Coronavirus is needed for HCWs to protect them from contamination and prevent disease transmission to their colleagues and other patients as well.

Assessment of Knowledge, Attitudes, and Perception of Health Care Workers Regarding COVID-19, A Cross-Sectional Study from Egypt

“…Regarding the knowledge about modes of transmission, symptoms, and treatment of COVID-19, we found that physicians had a significantly higher level of knowledge followed by pharmacists and nurses. This was in similar with other studies [14,23], while Olum et al [22] reported no significant difference in the level of knowledge about COVID-19 among HCWs in Uganda irrespective of their professions or qualifications.…”

“…This comes in accordance with studies conducted in China, Vietnam, and Pakistan [14,15,21]. Similarly, a Ugandan study had reported about 70% of their respondents had sufficient level of knowledge [22] also in an Iranian study it was found that 99% of respondents had excellent knowledge level regarding the disease modes of transmission but regarding the disease symptoms only 86% had sufficient knowledge [23]. On the other hand in a study from the United Arab Emirates, poor knowledge about the disease transmission, and the symptom was found in a significant proportion of HCWs [24].…”

“…It worth mentioning that, and despite their high knowledge score, the vast majority of our respondents were afraid and felt more susceptible to have COVID-19 infection (83.1% & 89.2%, respectively). This comes in line with Zhou et al and Maleki et al [14,23] who found that 85% and 92% of HCWs, respectively, were afraid of getting infected with the disease and transmitting it to the family. Determining the risk perceived by the HCWs is considered the basic tool to change the attitude and make the workplace more healthy and safe [33,34].…”

Healthcare workers’ knowledge and attitudes towards COVID-19 in Saudi Arabia

“…In a study in Pakistan, 93.2% of the HCWs reported positive attitudes but lacked knowledge about whether an in uenza vaccine could protect against COVID-19 [12]. In another recent study, 86% of the respondents lacked knowledge about the symptoms of the disease but demonstrated excellent knowledge about COVID-19's mode of transmission [13]. In a study in Uganda, 69% of the respondents had high levels of knowledge about COVID-19 [14].…”

Perceived militating factors to the practice of preventive measures for COVID-19 pandemic among health professionals in public health facilities of southern Ethiopia: a phenomenological study

“…This study found that a shortage of PPEs (facemasks, and glove) and scarcity of hand cleaning solutions (alcohol, and sanitizer) had the main militating factors. These ndings also are shown in studies conducted elsewhere [28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35]. These are evidence that if the health professionals do not get enough amount of PPEs, they are obligated to do the procedures or come in contact with patients with available resources, and a breach in standard precautions inevitable.…”