| Peer-Reviewed

Knowledge, Attitude & Practice of Health Care Workers on COVID-19 in Babylon Governorate, Iraq 2020

Received: 30 October 2021    Accepted: 15 November 2021    Published: 25 November 2021
Views:       Downloads:
Abstract

During the last month of 2019 a highly contagious infectious disease caused by a corona virus known as COVID-19 that identified in Wuhan/China, then the WHO declared the outbreak to be a public health emergency of international concern, after two months the disease entered our country with the international travelers and started its rapid spread in our society. The level of knowledge of health care workers about COVID-19 is one of the key factors in the battle against COVID-19 infection. The objectives of this study are to assess Knowledge, attitude, and practice of HCWs at primary health care centres regarding COVID-19 infection, also to assess the possible association with the sociodemographic factors of the study sample. Method: A cross sectional study was conducted in Babylon governorate/Iraq during the period of lockdown (from 15-march to15-may 2020) to assess the level of knowledge, attitude and practice of health care workers at the level of primary health care centers, by doing a multistage sampling; fifteen primary healthcare centers were selected randomly involving specialized and non-specialized family health care centers, a self-administered questionnaire with four aspects was prepared (knowledge, attitude, practice and source of information) then distributed to 403 participant. Results: Most frequent age group was 30-40 years 141 (35.0%), the study group included 94 (23.3%) physicians & 309 (76.7%) other medical staff. means of knowledge, attitude and practice score were (88.5±9.4 SD), (69.2±28.9 SD), (91.5±8.1 SD) respectively, there was a positive correlation between knowledge and practice scores (r=.196, p=.000). working in specialized family health care centers was found to have a high knowledge score (90.1±9.5 SD, p=0.00), while gender didn’t have significant difference in knowledge score. Knowledge about clinical symptoms of COVID-19 was of high percentage (96.3%). Regarding attitude (36.7%) of participants agreed that herbals and garlic are beneficial in prevention of the disease. Wearing gloves during the work was the most common practice reported (94.3%) followed by wearing face mask during work (91.6%), while (88.1%) performing washing hands regularly for 20 seconds. Conclusion: Good knowledge and practice but ordinary attitude among health care workers working in primary health care centers, this reflects the rapid spread of information's through TV, radios, websites and social medias after the announcement of WHO that this new infectious disease is a pandemic.

Published in Science Journal of Public Health (Volume 9, Issue 6)
DOI 10.11648/j.sjph.20210906.13
Page(s) 198-203
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

KAP, Knowledge, Attitude, Practice, COVID-19, Corona Virus, Health Care Workers, Cross Sectional Survey, Primary Health Care

References
[1] Zhu H, Wei L, Niu P. The novel coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, China. Global Health Research and Policy. 2020; 5 (1): 6. doi: 10.1186/s41256-020-00135-6.
[2] Guo Y-R, Cao Q-D, Hong Z-S, et al. The origin, transmission and clinical therapies on coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak – an update on the status. Military Medical Research. 2020; 7 (1): 11. doi: 10.1186/s40779-020-00240-0.
[3] Meo SA, Alhowikan AM, Khlaiwi TAL, et al. Novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV: Prevalence, biological and clinical characteristics comparison with SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV. European Review for Medical and Pharmacological Sciences. 2020; 24 (4): 2012-2019. doi: 10.26355/eurrev_202002_20379.
[4] Tian S, Hu N, Lou J, et al. Characteristics of COVID-19 infection in Beijing. Journal of Infection. 2020; 80 (4): 401-406. doi: 10.1016/j.jinf.2020.02.018.
[5] World Health Organization. Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19): Situation Report-36 (25/2/2020).; 2020. https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/331222.
[6] World Health Organization. Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19): Situation Report-152 (20/6/2020).; 2020. https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200620-COVID-19-sitrep-152.pdf?sfvrsn=83aff8ee_4. Accessed June 21, 2020.
[7] World Health Organisation. Rights, roles and responsibilities of heath workers, including key considerations for occupational safety and health : Interim guidence. 2020; (March): 1-2.
[8] Zhou P, Huang Z, Xiao Y, Huang X, Fan XG. Protecting Chinese Healthcare Workers while Combating the 2019 Novel Coronavirus. Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology. 2020: 1-4. doi: 10.1017/ice.2020.60.
[9] McEachan R, Taylor N, Harrison R, Lawton R, Gardner P, Conner M. Meta-Analysis of the Reasoned Action Approach (RAA) to Understanding Health Behaviors. Annals of Behavioral Medicine. 2016; 50 (4): 592-612. doi: 10.1007/s12160-016-9798-4.
[10] Zhou M, Tang F, Wang Y, et al. Knowledge, attitude and practice regarding COVID-19 among health care workers in Henan, China. Journal of Hospital Infection. 2020. doi: 10.1016/j.jhin.2020.04.012.
[11] Charan J, Biswas T. How to calculate sample size for different study designs in medical research? Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine. 2013; 35 (2): 121. doi: 10.4103/0253-7176.116232.
[12] World Health Organization. Guidance for health workers. http://web.archive.org/web/20200419195822/https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/technical-guidance/health-workers. Published 2020. Accessed April 19, 2020.
[13] World Health Organization. Quarantine Considerations in the Context of Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19): Interim Guidance 19 March 2020.; 2020. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6911e1.htm.
[14] CDC. Information for Healthcare Professionals about Coronavirus (COVID-19). https://web.archive.org/web/20200621210523/https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/hcp/. Published 2020. Accessed June 22, 2020.
[15] Zhai P, Ding Y, Wu X, Long J, Zhong Y, Li Y. The epidemiology, diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19. International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents. 2020; (January): 105955. doi: 10.1016/j.ijantimicag.2020.105955
[16] Zhong B, Luo W, Li H, et al. Knowledge, attitudes, and practices towards COVID-19 among Chinese residents during the rapid rise period of the COVID-19 outbreak: a quick online cross-sectional survey. 2020; 16. doi: 10.7150/ijbs.45221.
[17] CDC COVID-19 Response Team. Coronavirus Disease 2019 in Children - United States, February 12-April 2, 2020. MMWR Morbidity and mortality weekly report. 2020; 69 (14): 422-426. doi: 10.15585/mmwr.mm6914e4.
[18] Wei WE, Li Z, Chiew CJ, Yong SE, Toh MP, Lee VJ. Presymptomatic Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 — Singapore, January 23–March 16, 2020. MMWR Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. 2020; 69 (14): 411-415. doi: 10.15585/mmwr.mm6914e1.
[19] Hoehl S, Rabenau H, Berger A, et al. Evidence of SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Returning Travelers from Wuhan, China. New England Journal of Medicine. 2020; 382 (13): 1278-1280. doi: 10.1056/NEJMc2001899.
[20] World Health Organization. Infection Prevention and Control of Epidemic- and Pandemic-Prone Acute Respiratory Infections in Health Care.; 2014.
[21] Anderson E, Li J, Center for Research on Ingredient Safety. COVID-19 – Disinfecting with Bleach. http://web.archive.org/web/20200618203639/https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/COVID-19-disinfecting-with-bleach. Published 2020. Accessed June 18, 2020.
[22] The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. In the News: Coronavirus and “Alternative” Treatments. http://web.archive.org/web/20200412221550/http://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/in-the-news-coronavirus-and-alternative-treatments. Published 2020. Accessed April 13, 2020.
[23] Kadhim K, Abbas A, Hussain S. Use of herbal drugs as alternative medicine: Experience of Iraqi patients. Spatula DD - Peer Reviewed Journal on Complementary Medicine and Drug Discovery. 2015; 5 (4): 219. doi: 10.5455/spatula.20160313010203.
[24] Alzoubi H, Alnawaiseh N, Al-Mnayyis A, Abu-Lubad M, Aqel A, Al-Shagahin H. COVID-19 - Knowledge, attitude and practice among medical and non-medical university students in Jordan. Journal of Pure and Applied Microbiology. 2020; 14 (1): 17-24. doi: 10.22207/JPAM.14.1.04.
[25] World Health Organization. Novel Coronavirus (‎‎2019-NCoV)‎‎: Situation Report- 11 (31/1/2020). World Health Organization; 2020. https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200131-sitrep-11-ncov.pdf?sfvrsn=de7c0f7_4.
[26] World Health Organization. Myth busters. https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public/myth-busters#garlic. Published 2020. Accessed June 21, 2020.
Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Tamara Abdulhussein, Ammar Saaed, Rafaat Abbas, Ali Aljebbawi. (2021). Knowledge, Attitude & Practice of Health Care Workers on COVID-19 in Babylon Governorate, Iraq 2020. Science Journal of Public Health, 9(6), 198-203. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjph.20210906.13

    Copy | Download

    ACS Style

    Tamara Abdulhussein; Ammar Saaed; Rafaat Abbas; Ali Aljebbawi. Knowledge, Attitude & Practice of Health Care Workers on COVID-19 in Babylon Governorate, Iraq 2020. Sci. J. Public Health 2021, 9(6), 198-203. doi: 10.11648/j.sjph.20210906.13

    Copy | Download

    AMA Style

    Tamara Abdulhussein, Ammar Saaed, Rafaat Abbas, Ali Aljebbawi. Knowledge, Attitude & Practice of Health Care Workers on COVID-19 in Babylon Governorate, Iraq 2020. Sci J Public Health. 2021;9(6):198-203. doi: 10.11648/j.sjph.20210906.13

    Copy | Download

  • @article{10.11648/j.sjph.20210906.13,
      author = {Tamara Abdulhussein and Ammar Saaed and Rafaat Abbas and Ali Aljebbawi},
      title = {Knowledge, Attitude & Practice of Health Care Workers on COVID-19 in Babylon Governorate, Iraq 2020},
      journal = {Science Journal of Public Health},
      volume = {9},
      number = {6},
      pages = {198-203},
      doi = {10.11648/j.sjph.20210906.13},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjph.20210906.13},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.sjph.20210906.13},
      abstract = {During the last month of 2019 a highly contagious infectious disease caused by a corona virus known as COVID-19 that identified in Wuhan/China, then the WHO declared the outbreak to be a public health emergency of international concern, after two months the disease entered our country with the international travelers and started its rapid spread in our society. The level of knowledge of health care workers about COVID-19 is one of the key factors in the battle against COVID-19 infection. The objectives of this study are to assess Knowledge, attitude, and practice of HCWs at primary health care centres regarding COVID-19 infection, also to assess the possible association with the sociodemographic factors of the study sample. Method: A cross sectional study was conducted in Babylon governorate/Iraq during the period of lockdown (from 15-march to15-may 2020) to assess the level of knowledge, attitude and practice of health care workers at the level of primary health care centers, by doing a multistage sampling; fifteen primary healthcare centers were selected randomly involving specialized and non-specialized family health care centers, a self-administered questionnaire with four aspects was prepared (knowledge, attitude, practice and source of information) then distributed to 403 participant. Results: Most frequent age group was 30-40 years 141 (35.0%), the study group included 94 (23.3%) physicians & 309 (76.7%) other medical staff. means of knowledge, attitude and practice score were (88.5±9.4 SD), (69.2±28.9 SD), (91.5±8.1 SD) respectively, there was a positive correlation between knowledge and practice scores (r=.196, p=.000). working in specialized family health care centers was found to have a high knowledge score (90.1±9.5 SD, p=0.00), while gender didn’t have significant difference in knowledge score. Knowledge about clinical symptoms of COVID-19 was of high percentage (96.3%). Regarding attitude (36.7%) of participants agreed that herbals and garlic are beneficial in prevention of the disease. Wearing gloves during the work was the most common practice reported (94.3%) followed by wearing face mask during work (91.6%), while (88.1%) performing washing hands regularly for 20 seconds. Conclusion: Good knowledge and practice but ordinary attitude among health care workers working in primary health care centers, this reflects the rapid spread of information's through TV, radios, websites and social medias after the announcement of WHO that this new infectious disease is a pandemic.},
     year = {2021}
    }
    

    Copy | Download

  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Knowledge, Attitude & Practice of Health Care Workers on COVID-19 in Babylon Governorate, Iraq 2020
    AU  - Tamara Abdulhussein
    AU  - Ammar Saaed
    AU  - Rafaat Abbas
    AU  - Ali Aljebbawi
    Y1  - 2021/11/25
    PY  - 2021
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjph.20210906.13
    DO  - 10.11648/j.sjph.20210906.13
    T2  - Science Journal of Public Health
    JF  - Science Journal of Public Health
    JO  - Science Journal of Public Health
    SP  - 198
    EP  - 203
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2328-7950
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjph.20210906.13
    AB  - During the last month of 2019 a highly contagious infectious disease caused by a corona virus known as COVID-19 that identified in Wuhan/China, then the WHO declared the outbreak to be a public health emergency of international concern, after two months the disease entered our country with the international travelers and started its rapid spread in our society. The level of knowledge of health care workers about COVID-19 is one of the key factors in the battle against COVID-19 infection. The objectives of this study are to assess Knowledge, attitude, and practice of HCWs at primary health care centres regarding COVID-19 infection, also to assess the possible association with the sociodemographic factors of the study sample. Method: A cross sectional study was conducted in Babylon governorate/Iraq during the period of lockdown (from 15-march to15-may 2020) to assess the level of knowledge, attitude and practice of health care workers at the level of primary health care centers, by doing a multistage sampling; fifteen primary healthcare centers were selected randomly involving specialized and non-specialized family health care centers, a self-administered questionnaire with four aspects was prepared (knowledge, attitude, practice and source of information) then distributed to 403 participant. Results: Most frequent age group was 30-40 years 141 (35.0%), the study group included 94 (23.3%) physicians & 309 (76.7%) other medical staff. means of knowledge, attitude and practice score were (88.5±9.4 SD), (69.2±28.9 SD), (91.5±8.1 SD) respectively, there was a positive correlation between knowledge and practice scores (r=.196, p=.000). working in specialized family health care centers was found to have a high knowledge score (90.1±9.5 SD, p=0.00), while gender didn’t have significant difference in knowledge score. Knowledge about clinical symptoms of COVID-19 was of high percentage (96.3%). Regarding attitude (36.7%) of participants agreed that herbals and garlic are beneficial in prevention of the disease. Wearing gloves during the work was the most common practice reported (94.3%) followed by wearing face mask during work (91.6%), while (88.1%) performing washing hands regularly for 20 seconds. Conclusion: Good knowledge and practice but ordinary attitude among health care workers working in primary health care centers, this reflects the rapid spread of information's through TV, radios, websites and social medias after the announcement of WHO that this new infectious disease is a pandemic.
    VL  - 9
    IS  - 6
    ER  - 

    Copy | Download

Author Information
  • Public Health Department, Babylon Health Directorate, Babylon, Iraq

  • Pediatric Department, Imam Sadiq Teaching Hospital, Babylon, Iraq

  • Public Health Department, Babylon Health Directorate, Babylon, Iraq

  • Public Health Department, Babylon Health Directorate, Babylon, Iraq

  • Sections