Hand Hygiene and Mask-Wearing Practices during COVID-19 among Healthcare Workers: Misinformation as a Predictor

Wang, Senhu; Li, Lambert Zixin; Antwerpen, Natasha van; Suparman, Sutrisno; Gayatri, Mergy; Sari, Ningrum Paramita; Zhang, Stephen X.

doi:10.4269/ajtmh.21-0463

Cited by 10 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 32 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…For instance, a study in Indonesia reported an overall practice of 51.5% among university students (69), in line with findings from Ethiopia (70). Most participants reported wearing facemasks in public, which corroborate findings from other studies (69,73). However, the current findings are higher than those reported by Kateule and others in an observational study where 24% of the participants wore masks in Lusaka district and 27% wore masks in Mansa district of Zambia (74).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Knowledge and practices toward COVID-19 among healthcare students: A cross-sectional study at the University of Zambia

Mudenda

Ngalande

Mukosha

et al. 2022

Front. Public Health

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic led to the disruption of physical classes for university students globally, as large gatherings fuelled the transmission of the virus. In the efforts to mitigate its transmission and return to normality, prevention measures, including vaccination, have been encouraged. Therefore, it is critical to understand the knowledge and practices of students regarding COVID-19. This study assessed the knowledge and practices toward COVID-19 among healthcare students at the University of Zambia.Materials and methodsThis questionnaire-based cross-sectional study was carried out from August 2021 to October 2021 among 478 healthcare students (pharmacy, physiotherapy, nursing, biomedical, medicine, and radiography). We used a previously validated questionnaire to measure knowledge and practice. The predictors of knowledge and practices were assessed using logistic regression with robust estimation of standard errors. Statistical analysis was conducted using Stata/BE version 17.0.ResultsOf the 478 respondents, 243 (50.8%) were females. A larger proportion, 175 (36.6%) were in Pharmacy training, and 156 (32.6%) were in their fifth year of study. The overall mean knowledge score of the participants was 87.9 (SD = 16.1), being higher at 89.6 (SD = 14.3) among medical students and the lowest at 86.7 (SD = 17.1) among Pharmacy students, although this was statistically non-significant (p = 0.488). The overall mean practice score was 60.0 (SD = 24.7), being significantly higher at 63.5 (23.4) among nursing, physiotherapy and environmental students compared to other students (p = 0.048). In multivariable analysis, the participant training program was non-significantly associated with knowledge and practice toward COVID-19. However, increased age (AOR = 1.09, 95% CI: 1.01–1.117) and residing in urban areas (AOR = 1.79, 95% CI: 1.07–3.01) than in rural areas were associated with higher odds of good practice toward COVID-19.ConclusionThe healthcare students generally showed good knowledge levels and poor practices toward COVID-19. Further, there was no evidence of a difference in knowledge of COVID-19 among healthcare students. These findings suggest the need for implementation strategies to be centered on improving the practices of students toward COVID-19.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Knowledge and practices toward COVID-19 among healthcare students: A cross-sectional study at the University of Zambia

Mudenda

Ngalande

Mukosha

et al. 2022

Front. Public Health

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…More than a two-third of studies investigated general HCWs and the general population to generate more meta-analytical evidence, which suggests that policymakers and health care organizations need to further prioritize frontline HCWs and students in this ongoing pandemic. Medical (including nursing) students [ 79 ] are worthy of special attention.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mental health symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic in developing countries: A systematic review and meta-analysis

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background This systematic review aims to 1) summarize the prevalence of anxiety, depression, distress, insomnia, and PTSD in the adult population during the first year of the COVID pandemic in developing countries and 2) uncover and highlight the uneven distribution of research on mental health in all developing countries across regions. Methods Several literature databases were systemically searched for meta-analyses published by September 22, 2021, on the prevalence rates of mental health symptoms in developing countries worldwide. We meta-analysed the raw data of the individual empirical results from the previous meta-analysis papers in developing countries in different regions. Results The prevalence rates of mental health symptoms were summarized based on 341 empirical studies with a total of 1 704 072 participants from 40 out of 167 developing countries in Africa, Asia (East, Southeast, South, and West), Europe, and Latin America. Comparatively, Africa (39%) and West Asia (35%) had the worse overall mental health symptoms, followed by Latin America (32%). The prevalence rates of overall mental health symptoms of medical students (38%), general adult students (30%), and frontline health care workers (HCWs) (27%) were higher than those of general HCWs (25%) and general populations (23%). Among five mental health symptoms, distress (29%) and depression (27%) were the most prevalent. Interestingly, people in the least developing countries suffered less than those in emergent and other developing countries. The various instruments employed lead to result heterogeneity, demonstrating the importance of using the well-established instruments with the standard cut-off points (eg, GAD-7, GAD-2, and DASS-21 for anxiety, PHQ-9 and DASS-21 for depression, and ISI for insomnia). Conclusions The research effort on mental health in developing countries during COVID-19 has been highly uneven in the scope of countries and mental health outcomes. This meta-analysis, the largest on this topic to date, shows that the mental health symptoms are highly prevalent yet differ across regions. The accumulated systematic evidence from this study can help enable the prioritization of mental health assistance efforts to allocate attention and resources across countries and regions.

show abstract

“…It has been demonstrated that there is high individual-level heterogeneity in willingness to comply with COVID-19 preventive behaviors such as mask-wearing and hand hygiene among the general population as well as among healthcare workers ( 34 , 35 ). Uncertainty and limited information are particularly problematic as they can make healthcare professionals prone to misinformation, which is in turn associated with noncompliance with preventive behaviors ( 35 ), reduce the quality of care, and increase their fear, anxiety, and stress ( 36 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Facing the unknown COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative study with nurses and nursing assistants in three European countries

Podgorica

Zenzmaier

Rungg

et al. 2022

Front. Public Health

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

BackgroundThe coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is now a worldwide public health emergency. As essential and central parts of the COVID-19 patient care team, nurses and nurse assistants are facing all kinds of challenges caused by the disease and the pandemic. Understanding these challenges and the way nurses and nurse assistants handle and cope with them provides important knowledge on how to improve management of future pandemics and endemic situations. Thus, the present study explored the challenges faced by nurses and nurse asssitants who cared for COVID-19 patients in hospitals and long term care facilities in Italy, Austria and Germany.MethodsThe study employed a qualitative design. Purposive sampling was used to select the participants consisting on nurses (n = 30), nurse coordinators (n = 6) and nurse assistants (n = 5) from hospitals (n = 32) and long-term care facilities (n = 9) in Austria, Germany, and Italy. Data were collected between August and December 2020 through semi-structured interviews. The collected data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis.ResultsThe analysis of the data revealed three main themes with twelve sub-categories: (i) Knowledge, skills, and training (lack of knowledge; skills; organizational issues; training); (ii) resources and risk (lack of protective equipment; difficulties with protective equipment; risk and infection; feelings and isolation); (iii) coping strategies (humor; adaption; team effort; self-care; family and friends).ConclusionNurses and nurse assistants who participated in this study faced many personal and professional challenges, and used different coping strategies to manage the situation. Some of these strategies can be applied to reduce these challenges and create better working conditions for nurses and nurse assistants in similar events. Further research, training of staff, and adaptation of institutional policies may help develop new strategies to face future pandemics successfully.

show abstract

Hand Hygiene and Mask-Wearing Practices during COVID-19 among Healthcare Workers: Misinformation as a Predictor

Cited by 10 publications

References 32 publications

Knowledge and practices toward COVID-19 among healthcare students: A cross-sectional study at the University of Zambia

Knowledge and practices toward COVID-19 among healthcare students: A cross-sectional study at the University of Zambia

Mental health symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic in developing countries: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Facing the unknown COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative study with nurses and nursing assistants in three European countries

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About