Knowledge of Health Professionals on Cold Chain Management and Associated Factors in Ezha District, Gurage Zone, Ethiopia

Abstract

Background. Maintaining quality of vaccines has been one of the main challenges of immunization programs in Africa including Ethiopia, and this could mainly be explained by health professional’s knowledge about cold chain management. There are limited studies done in Ethiopia linking the knowledge of health professionals on cold chain management, and that is why we needed to conduct this study. Methodology. Institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted among all available health professionals in selected health facilities (232 health professionals). Face-to-face interview using a semistructured questionnaire was conducted to collect required information from September to October 2016. Observational checklist was used to spot availability and functionality of refrigerators. Data entry and cleaning was done using Epi Info and exported to SPSS for analysis. A multivariable logistic regression model was fitted to identify factors associated with health professional’s knowledge about cold chain management. Result. The response rate was 92.43%, and 119 (51.3%; 95% CI; 44.9%, 57.6%) health professionals had a satisfactory knowledge about cold chain management. Being trained on immunization program (AOR = 5.1; 95% CI: 2.68, 10.13), having a work experience above six years (AOR = 2.1; 95% CI: 1.8, 4.15), using EPI guidelines (AOR = 2.58; 95% CI: 1.47, 5.57), and being a BSc nurse/health officer (AOR = 2.4; 95% CI: 1.47, 14.4) had got better knowledge on cold chain management. Conclusion. Health professionals working in the health centers and health posts had low knowledge on cold chain management. Longer work experience, in-service training, and using EPI guideline at work were factors that improved health professionals’ knowledge about a cold chain management, which needs to be maintained.

Knowledge, attitude and practice of vaccinators and vaccine handlers on vaccine cold chain management in public health facilities, Ethiopia: Cross-sectional study

“…Only 24.4% of vaccinators and vaccine handlers received cold chain management-related training while just 27.6% got supervised on cold chain management. This was comparable with previous studies done in the past where the proportion of respondents not trained were 66.8% in central Ethiopia [ 28 ] and 78.1% in the Bale zone [ 18 ]. This was much lower than studies in Nigeria (65.0%) [ 14 ] and Brazil (91.3%) [ 29 ].…”

“…The recommended range of temperature for vaccines was correctly responded by 96.9% in this study. This was comparable with a study done in central Ethiopia, where 78.4% responded correctly [ 20 ] but 1.42 (67.8%) and 1.35 (71.1%) times higher than those in Bale [ 18 ] and Guragie zone [ 28 ] respectively. Another study in Nigeria [ 30 ] and Mozambique [ 12 ] also reported that nearly half of the respondents (52.1%) knew the optimal vaccine storage temperature.…”

Assessment of Factors Affecting Vaccine Cold Chain Management Practice in Bahir Dar City Health Institutions, 2019

“…The possible reason for this gap is in adequacy and unavailability of the equipment and infrastructure that is important to the good management practice of cold chain. The finding of this study show that most of the health workers had good level of knowledge on cold chain management practice, which is higher than the finding in the study in East Gojam 38.3% [8,19,27].…”

“…Only 28.6% of the health facility which had proper vaccine cold chain management practice. This finding is very low when compare with study done in Saudi, Nigeria and Ethiopia 90%, 66.1%, 58.3% and 67.8% of the facility had appropriate vaccine cold chain management practice [1,8,19,25,26]. The possible reason for this gap is in adequacy and unavailability of the equipment and infrastructure that is important to the good management practice of cold chain.…”

“…Some factors contributing to weaknesses of the cold chain are delays during transportation, quality of refrigerators, a method of storage, too long storage at the health unit, improper use of refrigerators, power interruption, equipment breakage, and lack of trained personnel capable of managing the cold chain. A study Southeast Ethiopia, only 56 (30.6%) health facilities had refrigerator, out of 35 functional refrigerators, 20 (57.1%) had national cold chain monitoring guideline and only 14 (40%) were properly store vaccines [9,12,16,19]. The aim of this study is to assess the factors affecting management and quality of the cold chain in immunization health institutions in Bahir Dar city.…”