Knowledge, attitude and practice regarding COVID-19 among healthcare workers in Chitwan, Nepal

Abstract

Background COVID-19 is a viral respiratory disease that was recently recognized in humans. The number of COVID-19 cases has been gradually increasing in Nepal. The objective of this study was to evaluate knowledge, attitude and practice regarding COVID-19 among healthcare workers in Chitwan, one of the districts located in central Nepal. Methods It was a cross-sectional study conducted among healthcare workers from various health institutions located in Chitwan district of Nepal. A self-reported questionnaire was circulated online. Bivariate analyses were done using Spearman’s correlation coefficient, Pearson’s chi square test, and student’s t test as appropriate, whereas multivariate analyses were done using linear regression models. Results A total of 353 responses were analyzed, out of which 47% were nurses, 28.9% were doctors, 11.6% were health assistants, 2% were certified medical assistants, and the remaining 10.5% were categorized as others. The majorities were females (58.9%), were in the age group of 16–29 years (67.1%) and had work experience of less than 5 years (62%). The majority of healthcare workers obtained good to moderate knowledge and practice scores (n = 82.15%, 83.57%, respectively) and had positive attitude scores (n = 90.93%). Mean score values were 21.65 ± 4.71 out of 33 in knowledge section, 8.07 ± 1.49 out of 13 in attitude section and 13.89 ± 5.33 out of 20 in practice section. Mean knowledge and practice scores were significantly associated with job descriptions of healthcare workers (p value – 0.000, 0.007, respectively) with highest mean knowledge scores among doctors (23.70 ± 4.48) and highest mean practice scores among health assistants (15.10 ± 3.61). Higher practice scores (ß = 0.626) and infection prevention training (ß = 1.467) were significantly associated with higher knowledge scores; higher knowledge (ß = 1.366) and higher practice scores (ß = 0.110) were significantly associated with higher attitude scores; and higher knowledge scores (ß = 0.308) and higher attitude scores (ß = 0.265) were significantly associated with higher practice scores. Conclusion The majority of healthcare workers from Chitwan, Nepal, had good to moderate knowledge and practice scores and had a positive attitude toward COVID-19. There was a significant association between knowledge, attitude and practice scores regarding COVID-19 among healthcare workers.

Predicting the Willingness of Nurses to Work with COVID-19 Patients: The Impact of Knowledge and Attitude

“…(Ryan & Deci, 2000) In this study, we found out that more than half of the respondents (53%) reported their overall level of knowledge related to COVID-19 as "competent" and 34.3% rated themselves as "pro cient". The result is consistent with other studies (Huynh, Nguyen, Vo, & Pham, 2020;Nemati et al, 2020;Nepal et al, 2020;Saqlain et al, 2020;Zhou et al, 2020) where most healthcare workers reported having good knowledge about COVID-19. This high percentage of knowledge among nurses and midwives regarding COVID-19 is due to the immense volume of information that was made public by social media.…”

Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice Towards COVID-19 Among People Living with HIV/AIDS in Kigali, Rwanda

“…The current study reported that gender is considerably associated with practice score, and these findings corroborate studies done in other settings, which reported that females are more likely to take preventive and protective measures than males [26][27][28]. The study found no association between gender, age, residence, employment, and duration on ART, contrary to Nepal's studies conducted during the peak of COVID-19 [29]. This could be due to the fact that this study was conducted at a later stage of the pandemic than in Nepal when information about COVID-19 was found everywhere and accessible to all age groups.…”

A Countrywide Survey in Saudi Arabia Regarding the Knowledge and Attitude of Health Care Professionals about Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19)

“…It is time to ponder how to protect the HCPs from acquiring this disease. Studies regarding knowledge and attitude of HCPs about COVID-19 have been done in other countries [ 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 ]. However, to the best of our knowledge, none has been done with Saudi Arabian HCPs.…”