Assessment of Health Workers’ Knowledge, Beliefs, Attitudes, and Use of Personal Protective Equipment for Prevention of COVID-19 Infection in Low-Resource Settings

Abstract

Background. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a highly infectious disease with a potential for healthcare workers (HCWs) getting infected due to inadequate protection while attending to patients. Effective use of personal protective equipment (PPE) is key to mitigating the spread of SARS-CoV-2 infection in healthcare settings. Hence, there is a need to understand HCWs’ use of PPE in resource-limited settings and how closely the currently recommended guidelines for PPE are followed. This study assessed the HCWs’ knowledge about, attitudes towards, beliefs on, and use of PPE to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection in a resource-limited setting. Methods. This cross-sectional study was conducted in April 2020 in Southwest and Northwest Nigeria. The selection of participants was performed via the snowball sampling technique using a 33-item, web-based, self-administered questionnaire via a social media network. We obtained relevant sociodemographic data and information on participants’ occupations and knowledge about, attitudes towards, beliefs on, and use of PPE. We analysed the data using SPSS version 23.0 for Windows (IBM, Armonk, New York, USA). A p values <0.05 were considered statistically significant. Results. A total of 290 subjects responded to the questionnaire, and 18 (6.2%) were excluded because of incomplete data. The mean age of the respondents was 32.3 ± 9.9 years. There were 116 males (42.6%). The majority of the respondents were medical doctors (114, 41.9%), followed by nurses and clinical students. Of the 272 respondents in this survey, only 70 (25.7%) had adequate knowledge about PPE. Of the respondents who presumed they had adequate knowledge about donning and doffing PPE, 94 (56%) were incorrect. The predictors of good knowledge were ages younger than 45 years (p=0.046) and practice location (p=0.009). Conclusion. This study showed that HCWs’ knowledge about, attitudes towards, and beliefs on PPE and their PPE skill in practice in Nigeria were remarkably poor. There is an urgent need for nationwide practical training on PPE use to curtail the spread of SARS-CoV-2 infection among HCWs.