Infection prevention knowledge, practice, and its associated factors among healthcare providers in primary healthcare unit of Wogdie District, Northeast Ethiopia, 2019: a cross-sectional study

Jemal Assefa,Gedefaw Diress Alen,Seteamlak Adane

doi:10.1186/s13756-020-00802-w

Jemal Assefa, Gedefaw Diress Alen + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/s13756-020-00802-w

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Abstract

BackgroundAdequate knowledge and safe practice of infection prevention among healthcare providers are vital to prevent nosocomial infections. Thus, this study aimed to assess the level of knowledge and practices of healthcare providers towards infection prevention and its associated factors in the health facilities of Wogdie District, Northern Ethiopia.MethodsInstitution based cross-sectional study was conducted among 171 healthcare providers who were selected by a simple random sampling technique. Data were collected using interviewer-administered questionnaire. Multivariable logistic regression was performed to identify factors associated with knowledge and practice of infection prevention.ResultAbout 70.8 and 55.0% of healthcare providers had adequate knowledge and safe practice of infection prevention respectively. Having infection prevention guideline (AOR = 3.65, 95% CI; 1.26, 10.54), taking infection prevention training (AOR = 2.2, 95% CI; 1.01, 4.75), having five years or more work experience (AOR = 1.52:95%CI; 1.13, 4.51), and working in maternity unit (AOR = 1.67:95%CI; 1.38–5.23) were positively associated with adequate knowledge of infection prevention. The odds of safe practice were higher in participants who received infection prevention training (AOR: 2.4; 95% CI; 1.01, 4.75) but lower among healthcare providers who are working in the facility which has no continuous water supply (AOR = 0.48:95% CI; 0.21, 0.83).ConclusionA significant proportion of healthcare providers had inadequate knowledge and unsafe practice of infection prevention. To improve healthcare worker’s knowledge of infection prevention, adequate pre-service as well as on job training should be given.

Highlights

Adequate knowledge and safe practice of infection prevention among healthcare providers are vital to prevent nosocomial infections
The odds of safe infection prevention practices were 52% lower among healthcare providers who work in health facility which have not continuous water supply (AOR = 0.48:95% CI;0.214–0.832)) than their counterparts (Table 6)
Even though Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) of Ethiopia is scaling-up its activities related with infection prevention, the current study showed that only 55% of healthcare providers had safe infection prevention practices

Summary

Introduction

Adequate knowledge and safe practice of infection prevention among healthcare providers are vital to prevent nosocomial infections. This study aimed to assess the level of knowledge and practices of healthcare providers towards infection prevention and its associated factors in the health facilities of Wogdie District, Northern Ethiopia. Healthcare-associated infection is defined as infections acquired in the healthcare facilities during the clinical, diagnostic and therapeutic procedure that was not present at the time of the client’s admission [1]. It is a main problem encountered in healthcare delivery services worldwide and constitutes one of the most important causes of morbidity and mortality [1,2,3]. Most of the healthcare associated infections are caused by the transmission of pathogens from one patient to another, especially by healthcare workers who failed to practice infection prevention measures consistently [9,10,11,12]

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