Knowledge and utilization of computer among health workers in Addis Ababa hospitals, Ethiopia: computer literacy in the health sector

Abstract

BackgroundIncorporation of information technology advancements in healthcare has gained wide acceptance in the last two decades. Developed countries have successfully incorporated information technology advancements in their healthcare system thus, improving healthcare. However, only a limited application of information technology advancements is seen in developing countries in their healthcare system. Hence, this study was aimed at assessing knowledge and utilization of computer among health workers in Addis Ababa hospitals.MethodsA quantitative cross-sectional study was conducted among 304 health workers who were selected using stratified sampling technique from all governmental hospitals in Addis Ababa. Data was collected from April 15 to April 30, 2010 using a structured, self-administered, and pre-tested questionnaire from five government hospitals in Addis Ababa. The data was entered into Epi Info version 3.5.1 and exported to SPSS version 16. Analysis was done using multinomial logistic regression technique.ResultsA total of 270 participants, age ranging from 21 to 60 years responded to the survey (88.8% response rate). A total of 91 (33.7%) respondents had an adequate knowledge of computers while 108 (40.0%) had fair knowledge and 71(26.3%) of the respondents showed inadequate knowledge. A total of 38(14.1%) were adequately utilizing computers, 14(5.2%) demonstrated average or fair utilization and majority of the respondents 218(80.7%) inadequately utilized computers. Significant predictor variables were average monthly income, job satisfaction index and own computer possession.ConclusionsComputer knowledge and utilization habit of health workers were found to be very low. Increasing accessibility to computers and delivering training on the use of computers for workers will increases the knowledge and utilization of computers. This will facilitate the rate of diffusion of the technology to the health sector. Hence, programs targeted at enhancing knowledge and skill of computer use and increasing access to computer should be designed. The association between computer knowledge/skill and health care delivery competence should be studied.

Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Laboratory Staff on Computer: Role in Scaling up Xpert MTB/RIF in Nigeria

“…This might be due to the fact that most Nigerian women who are mothers after office work engage in domestic activities, thereby having little or no time for computer practice unlike their male counterpart. Another reason could be that fewer females possess personal computers and this corroborates the findings of [2].…”

“…Other authors [2,14] in their respective studies had earlier revealed similar low patterns. In contrast, studies [15,16] in different places reported higher patterns from their research.…”

“…It involves knowledge of hard and soft ware, including the use of basic computer applications like computer network and file management. Using the methods of Mohammed et al, [2] in their study on knowledge and utilization of computer among health workers for analysis; those who scored greater than 80%, 60% to 79%, and less than 60% of knowledge questions were classified as having adequate, fair and inadequate computer knowledge respectively.…”

“…The Health care sector is not left out [1,2]. Computer based diagnosis is the hope of fast and accurate diagnostic process [3,4].…”

Nursing Students' Perception and Educational Needs regarding Nursing informatics

“…Developed countries have successfully adapted it within healthcare organizations. Compared to developed, countries developing countries have limited application of it in thier healthcare institutions (Mohammed, Andargie, Meseret & Girma, 2013). Furthermore, Jeon et al (2016) concluded that informatics in nursing education have increased during the last decade.…”