Abstract
IntroductionEbola Virus Disease (EVD) is of great public health importance. Health care workers (HCWs) in various health care facilities especially in developing countries such as Nigeria, are particularly vulnerable to the disease. It is therefore imperative that health care workers adopt the necessary preventive practices to reduce to the barest minimum the risk of infection transmission. The study assessed the factors associated with EVD preventive practices among HCWs in a tertiary institution in Benin City, Nigeria.MethodsA total of 374 health care workers selected using a two-staged sampling technique participated in this descriptive cross-sectional study. Data were collected using structured, self-administered questionnaires and analyzed with IBM SPSS, version 21.0. Univariate and bivariate analysis were done. Level of significance was set at p < 0.05.ResultsThe mean age of respondents was 36.3 ± 8.0 years. All, 374 (100.0%) of the respondents were aware of EVD and 347 (92.8%) of respondents had good knowledge of EVD. More than half of the respondents, 228 (61.0%) and 201 (53.7%) had positive attitude towards EVD and good EVD preventive practices respectively. A higher proportion of respondents with positive attitude towards EVD were observed to have good preventive practice (p < 0.05).ConclusionKnowledge, attitude and preventive practices towards EVD among HCWs were generally good. Positive attitude towards EVD was significantly associated with good preventive practices.
Highlights
Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) is of great public health importance
This study is timely as it was conducted about a year after the end of the outbreak in Nigeria, to understand the changes that may have occurred in terms of knowledge, attitude and preventive practices among Health care workers (HCWs) who are the frontline responders to medical emergencies
This is in line with findings from a study done in Lagos and Ile- Ife, Nigeria and Ethiopia where 85.5%, 95% and 94.6% respectively of the HCWs were aware of EVD [14,18,19]
Summary
Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) is of great public health importance. Health care workers (HCWs) in various health care facilities especially in developing countries such as Nigeria, are vulnerable to the disease. The need to study the current knowledge, attitude and practice alongside the factors associated with preventive practices of EVD among HCWs in a tertiary health care institution. This will help develop interventions targeted at the gaps identified. This study is timely as it was conducted about a year after the end of the outbreak in Nigeria, to understand the changes that may have occurred in terms of knowledge, attitude and preventive practices among HCWs who are the frontline responders to medical emergencies
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