INFECTION PREVENTION PRACTICE AND ASSOCIATED FACTORS AMONG HEALTH CARE WORKERS IN PUBLIC HEALTH FACILITIES OF MOGADISHU, SOMALIA, 2022

Abstract

Background: Infection prevention is essential for providing safe and quality facility-level services. Worldwide, morbidity and mortality are primarily due to preventable infectious diseases which account for 62% of all deaths in Africa and 31% in Southeast Asia. Therefore, infection prevention and control measures enhance the protection of vulnerable people. Objective: The objective of this study is to determine infection prevention practice and associated factors among healthcare workers working in government health facilities of Mogadishu, Somalia, 2022 Methods: A quantitative cross-sectional study was conducted from March 01, 2022, to May 30, 2022 on 562 healthcare workers of public health facilities in Mogadishu town. After obtaining consent from the study participants, data was collected using pretested, self-administered, and standardized questionnaires adapted from other studies. After the data was collected, it was processed, cleaned, and analyzed using SPSS version 26. A logistic regression model was computed to measure the association between the predictor and outcome variables. A P-value of.05 with a 95% CI was used as the cut-off point to declare the level of statistical significance. Results: The study found that 236 (42.4%) (95%CI: 1.38-1.47) of the 556 respondents had a good practice of infection prevention. In the multivariate logistic regression analysis, attitudes of health care workers toward infection prevention (AOR=0.478, 95 percent CI: 0.316, 0.723), occupational training (AOR:0.177, 95%CI:0.177,0.591), work experience of health care workers (AOR:3.215,95%CI:1.712,6.038), availability of infection prevention guidelines (AOR: 0.489,95%CI:0.284,0.842), budget availability for infection prevention (AOR: 0.421, 95%CI: 0.245,0.723) were among factors significantly associated with infection prevention practice. Conclusion: The magnitude of infection prevention practice was low (42.4%) compared to other studies. The results of the study showed that attitude, knowledge work experience, training, needlestick injury, vaccination against HepB and other infectious diseases, availability of infection prevention guidelines, availability of hand rub in the room, and availability of budget for infection prevention were among factors associated with infection prevention practice.