Assessment of Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Health Care Providers towards the Prevention and Control of Multi Drug Resistant Tuberculosis at Nekemte Referral Hospital, Western Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) has existed for millennia and remains a major global health problem. Although it may be assumed that in general health care workers (HCWs) know about MDR-TB and its implications, several studies from around the globe have found that HCWs do not always exhibit sufficient knowledge, positive attitudes, and acceptable practices regarding preventing and treating MDR-TB. Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted by means of self-administered semi structured questionnaires that was provided to health care workers of NRH from March 10 to April 2, 2017. Using convenient sampling technique, from 155 health professionals’ 140 individuals returned the questionnaires. The data was analyzed using SPSS version 20. Descriptive statistics was used to determine frequency and percentage. Chi-square test was used to identify the relationships between dependent and independent variables (P<0.05 and 95% CI). Results: The mean age of participants was 30.76+6.42 years. About 56.4% of the participants were males and majority of participants were Nurses (42.2%). Greater than half (59.3%) of respondents had good level of knowledge about MDR-TB and the overwhelming majority of them held positive attitude (60.7%) towards patients with MDR-TB. Overall 21%, 55%, 72.1% of respondents reported that they had their own copy of MDR-TB management guidelines, used the protective masks and were individually involved in educating patients about MDR-TB respectively. Respondents who had good knowledge about MDR-TB significantly wore their Protective masks than those with insufficient knowledge which was statistically significant (P=0.01). Based on the assessed level of knowledge, respondents with good level of knowledge reported they referred to the manual more than those with insufficient level (30.1% versus 19.3%, P=0.172). Conclusion: The finding indicates that the level of knowledge about MDR-TB did not influence the attitude and practices of respondents towards patients suffering from MDR-TB. Contrary to this good knowledge was positively associated with safer practices such as using protective masks, educating patients, and referring to the MDRTB guidelines manual. This situation needs to be remedied by making the guidelines available to all healthcare workers in Ethiopia.