Compliance with Infection Prevention Standard Precautions and Associated Factors among Healthcare Workers at Public health Hospitals in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2024

Abstract

Abstract Background: Hundreds of millions of patients and healthcare professionals are affected by health care-associated infections worldwide each year, leading to significant mortality and financial losses for health systems. This loss can be prevented by adhering to infection prevention standard precautions. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the compliance with infection prevention standard precautions and associated factors among health care workers. Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the compliance of healthcare workers with infection prevention standard precautions and associated factors in public health hospitals of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 2024. Methods: The study was conducted in four public hospitals of Addis Ababa, from May 15 to June 15, 2024. A cross-sectional study design was employed. All 418 healthcare workers were invited to the study and 384 were responded to the questionnaire. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire. Data were entered into Epi data 4.7 and were exported to SPSS version 27 for analysis. Results: A total of 384 respondents took part in the study making the response rate 92%. Females constituted 196 (51.0%) of the participants. The mean age (standard deviation) of the respondents was 29.86 (±5.34). This study determined that the overall compliance of healthcare workers was found 199(51.8%) with [95%CI: 47.7%, 56.9%]. The factors significantly associated with standard precautions were being experienced (AOR=2.33, 95%CI: [1.46, 3.71]), having good knowledge about standard precautions (AOR=2.03, 95%CI: [1.29, 3.18]), taking training on standard precautions, (AOR=4.81, 95%CI: [2.67, 8.68]), and having regular management support for safety (AOR=2.76, 95%CI: [1.51, 5.03]), respectively. Conclusion and recommendation: This study found that the overall compliance of healthcare workers with infection prevention standard precautions was low with identified factors increases odds of good compliance of healthcare workers were work experience, having good knowledge about infection prevention standard precautions, taking training on infection prevention and having regular management support. Therefore, policymakers and health planners should strengthen the provision of updated training services on infection prevention standard precautions on a regular basis in the study area and similar set up. Keywords: compliance, healthcare workers, infection prevention standard precautions.