Changes in healthcare workers’ knowledge, attitudes, practices, and stress during the COVID-19 pandemic

  1. Mohamad-Hani Temsah
  2. Abdullah Al Huzaimi
  3. Abdulkarim Alrabiaah
  4. Nurah Alamro
  5. Fahad Al-Sohime
  6. Ayman Al-Eyadhy
  7. Khalid Alhasan
  8. Jameela A. Kari
  9. Ali Alhaboob
  10. Amro Alsalmi
  11. Wejdan AlMuhanna
  12. Ibrahim Almaghlouth
  13. Fadi Aljamaan
  14. Rabih Halwani
  15. Basema Saddik
  16. Mazin Barry
  17. Fahad Al-Zamil
  18. Ahmad N. AlHadi
  19. Sarah Al-Subaie
  20. Amr Jamal
  21. Ali Mohammed Somily

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Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has caused an unprecedented health crisis around the world, not least because of its heterogeneous clinical presentation and course. The new information on the pandemic emerging daily has made it challenging for healthcare workers (HCWs) to stay current with the latest knowledge, which could influence their attitudes and practices during patient care.

This study is a follow-up evaluation of changes in HCWs’ knowledge, attitudes, and practices as well as anxiety levels regarding COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. Data were collected through an anonymous, predesigned, self-administered questionnaire that was sent online to HCWs in Saudi Arabia.

The questionnaire was sent to 1500 HCWs, with a 63.8% response rate (N = 957). The majority of respondents were female (83%), and the most common age group was 31 to 40 years (52.2%). Nurses constituted 86.3% of the respondents. HCWs reported higher anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic which increased from 4.91 ± 2.84 to 8.6 ± 2.27 on an 11-point Likert scale compared to other viral outbreaks. HCWs believed that their own preparedness as well as that of their hospital's intensive care unit or emergency room was higher during the COVID-19 pandemic than during the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus pandemic (2012–2015). About 58% of HCWs attended one or more simulations concerning the management of COVID-19 patients in their intensive care unit/emergency room, and nearly all had undergone N95 mask fit testing. The mean score of HCWs’ knowledge of COVID-19 was 9.89/12. For most respondents (94.6%), the perception of being at increased risk of infection was the main cause of anxiety related to COVID-19; the mean score of anxiety over COVID-19 increased from 4.91 ± 2.84 before to 8.6 ± 2.27 during the pandemic in Saudi Arabia.

HCWs’ anxiety levels regarding COVID-19 have increased since a pandemic was declared. It is vital that healthcare facilities provide more emotional and psychological support for all HCWs.

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  1. Version published to 10.1097/md.0000000000025825
  2. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2021.01.19.21250126: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementIRB: The Institutional Review Board of King Saud University Medical City approved the study.
    Consent: HCWs gave informed consent prior to participation.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    The SPSS IBM Version21 was used for the data analysis, the excel program was used for creating figures and depictions, the p-value statistical significance was considered at 0.050 level.
    SPSS
    suggested: (SPSS, RRID:SCR_002865)

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    In China, HCWs who were interviewed reported that they did not require psychological help but needed enough protective supplies and more uninterrupted rest time.[29] Another study examining factors related to HCWs’ psychological difficulties found that infection of colleagues and family members, protective measures, and medical violence were among the main concerns of HCWs in areas affected by COVID-19.[33-34] This study had some limitations. Recall bias may have affected some participants’ responses, and most participants were nurses and females. Another issue is that many HCWs in our cohort had experienced the previous MERS-CoV epidemic; therefore, additional research in other settings are needed in order to determine whether our findings are generalizable.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  3. Version published to 10.1101/2021.01.19.21250126v1 on medRxiv