Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices Associated With COVID-19 Among Healthcare Workers in Hospitals: A Cross-Sectional Study in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Lack of knowledge among healthcare workers (HCWs) about infectious diseases leads to delayed diagnosis of new cases, spread of infection, and poor infection control practices. Therefore, HCWs based in hospitals must be equipped with good knowledge about the pathogen and disease to put up a robust fight against the virus. The aim of this study was to assess knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) of HCWs about coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) at multiple public and private hospitals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. A cross-sectional, online questionnaire-based study was conducted between July and August of 2020. Logistic regression was used to investigate differences in the level of KAP among different participants. A total of 510 HCWs in hospitals completed the questionnaire. Only two-thirds of the participants (67.8%) had adequate knowledge about COVID-19, 72.2% of the participants had a positive attitude toward COVID-19, and 80.2% of the participants were practicing appropriately most of the time. Poor KAP was associated with a low education level. The females had better knowledge and attitude, whereas the males were more likely to practice appropriately most of the time. Notably, the participants from the nursing profession demonstrated a less favorable attitude compared with medical staff from other professions, but that did not prevent them from being the best when it comes to applying appropriate practices. The inadequate level of KAP among HCWs with the continuation of the pandemic and the possibility of a second wave demonstrates the need for continuous COVID-19-specific infection control training and emotional well-being supporting programs, especially for HCWs with a low education level.

Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices Associated With COVID-19 Among Healthcare Workers in Hospitals: A Cross-Sectional Study in India

“…In addition, the internal reliability for the KAP scales were acceptable with a Cronbach's α of 0.7, 0.6, and 0.8, respectively. Further details on the scale validity and scoring were presented in the study that was conducted by part of the team in Saudi Arabia (8).…”

Perception of mucormycosis infection among Bangladeshi healthcare workers: an exploratory cross-sectional study in the year following the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Female healthcare workers were perceptually more sound. A previous survey of COVID-19 indicated that the perception of female healthcare workers was more adequate than that of male healthcare workers (Almohammed et al 2021 ). Moreover, Nebhinani and Saini revealed that female healthcare workers more strongly perceived NCD (non-communicable disease) related information (Nebhinani and Saini 2020 ).…”

“…This study found that the overall perceptions level of mucormycosis was significantly associated with the healthcare workers' age, gender, marital status, profession, monthly income, marital status, job type, and FNF death due to COVID-19. Similarly, numerous studies were conducted previously to assess the healthcare workers' perception level in different communicable diseases emergencies (Gizaw et al 2015 ; Ejeh et al 2020 ; Wake 2020 ; Dil et al 2020 ; Almohammed et al 2021 ; Fetansa et al 2021 ; and Roupa et al 2021 ).…”

Measuring COVID-19 Related Health Literacy in Healthcare Professionals—Psychometric Evaluation of the HL-COV-HP Instrument

“…While there is a growing body of research on aspects of COVID-19 related health literacy of the general population [4,15,16,22] or specific populations, e.g., migrants, children, students, or patients [8][9][10][11]13,[19][20][21]23], little is known about the COVID-19 related health literacy of healthcare professionals, such as physicians, nurses, or psychologists. Since 2020, many studies have investigated the knowledge, attitude, and behavior of healthcare professionals worldwide [24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34]. The results indicate a lack of adequate knowledge about COVID-19 in many cases (6-42%) [24,25,27,32].…”

“…Since 2020, many studies have investigated the knowledge, attitude, and behavior of healthcare professionals worldwide [24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34]. The results indicate a lack of adequate knowledge about COVID-19 in many cases (6-42%) [24,25,27,32]. Healthcare professionals having a higher education were found to have better knowledge about COVID-19 [28,33,35].…”