Knowledge and Practice of Health Care Providers Towards Proper Face Mask Utilization to Minimize the Extent of COVID-19 Infection in Amhara Region Referral Hospitals, Ethiopia

Abstract

Introduction The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic began in early 2020, causing tens of thousands of deaths, over a million cases, and widespread socioeconomic disruption. Objective The aim of the study was to assess health care workers’ knowledge and practice of proper face mask utilization to prevent the spread of COVID-19 infection in Amhara region referral hospitals, Ethiopia. Methods A cross-sectional institutional-based quantitative study design was conducted from May 15 to 30/2020 using pre-tested self-administrated questionnaire and analyzed by using SPSS version 20.0. The study included 422 health care providers, and the sample size was determined using a single population proportion formula with the assumption of a p value of 0.05. Data were collected using a consecutive sampling technique from all referral hospitals and were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Finally, the outcome was presented in the form of a text and a table. Results The overall knowledge and practice of health care providers regarding proper face mask utilization were 278 (65.8%) and 252 (59.5%), respectively. Of them, 284 (67.3%) knew that face masks were worn with the white side facing in, 264 (62.6%) knew that face masks had three layers, and 331 (78.4%) knew that surgical face masks were worn for up to 8 hours. Conclusion and Recommendation The respondent’s knowledge of proper face mask usage was high, in comparison with another studies but the proper utilization of face mask was relatively low. Ethiopian ministry of health in collaboration with Amhara region, zonal and woreda health institution works together to increase utilization of face mask and to alleviate scarcity of resource and provide training to the health care providers about the proper utilization of face mask to tackle COVID-19.

Face mask utilization and associated factors in combating COVID-19 pandemic among government employee in Akaki district administration offices, Oromia, Ethiopia, 2022

“…As to this study, the overall knowledge score of facemask utilization about facemask utilization was reported 229(59.5%). This inding is extremely lower compared to the study conducted in Malaysia (80.5%), among university students in Vietnam (89.7%), Lower compared to the study conducted in Saudi Arabi (86.6%), Pakistan (73%), Amhara region metropolitan cities (76%), Amhara region referral hospitals (65.8%) [6,22,26,36,37]. This disparity could be attributed to differences in health coverage, disparities in COVID19 awareness, disparities in awareness creation strategies among study areas (countries), and differences in sociocultural and economic levels.…”

“…However, the current study is higher compared to the studies conducted in Malaysia which were (51.2%), Pakistan (35.2%), in Addis Zemen Hospital (36.6%), in a police health facility in Addis Ababa (33.3%), and almost similar to the study conducted in Dassie and kombolcha among taxi drivers which were (54.68%). The disparities could have resulted from the difference in awareness creation activities done by media, government bodies, health professionals, in luential persons and might be due sociocultural factors, time difference, the background of study participants, and study setting [5,6,11,22,24,[26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33].…”

“…Another study conducted in the city of Woldia in northeastern Ethiopia showed that wearing face masks in crowded places was 63.9% and that respondents' practices regarding face mask use signi icantly associated with sex, marital status, education and occupation, while the other study was conducted to assess the face mask utilization status of healthcare providers in referral hospitals in the Amhara region, their face mask utilization was shown to be 59.5% [21,22].…”