Risk perceptions and preventive practices of COVID-19 among healthcare professionals in public hospitals in Ethiopia

  1. Wakgari Deressa
  2. Alemayehu Worku
  3. Workeabeba Abebe
  4. Muluken Gizaw
  5. Wondwosson Amogne

Reviewed by

Read the full article See related articles

Discuss this preprint

Start a discussion What are Sciety discussions?

Listed in

Log in to save this article

Abstract

Healthcare professionals are at higher risk of contracting the novel coronavirus due to their work exposure in the healthcare settings. Practicing appropriate preventive measures to control COVID-19 infection is one of the most important interventions that healthcare workers are expected to use. The aim of this study was to assess the level of risk perception and practices of preventive measures of COVID-19 among health workers in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. A hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted from 9 th to 26 th June 2020 among healthcare professionals working at six public hospitals in Addis Ababa. Data were collected using a self-administered structured questionnaire. Frequency, percentage, and mean were used to summarize the data. A binary logistic regression analyses were performed to identify factors associated with risk perception about COVID-19. A total of 1,134 participants were surveyed. Wearing facemask (93%), hand washing for at least 20 seconds (93%), covering mouth and nose while coughing or sneezing (91%), and avoiding touching eyes, nose, and mouth (91%) were the commonly self-reported preventive practices. About 88% perceived that they were worried about the risk of becoming infected with coronavirus, and majority (91%) worried about the risk of infection to their family. The mean score of overall fear and worry of COVID-19 was 2.37 on a scale of 1 to 3. Respondents who ever provided clinical care to COVID-19 patients were more likely to report fear and worry (adjusted OR=1.34, 95% CI:1.02-1.91), however those who ever participated in Ebola or SARS outbreaks were less likely to report fear and worry due to COVID-19 crisis (adjusted OR=0.66, 95% CI:0.48-0.90). This study has revealed widespread practices of preventive measures and the highest perceived risk of COVID-19 among healthcare workers. Therefore, an effective risk communication intervention should be implemented to ensure the maintenance of appropriate practices during the current COVID-19 pandemic.

Article activity feed

  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.11.04.367896: (What is this?)

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

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementConsent: After explaining the purpose of the study and obtaining written or oral informed consent, study participants were given a paper-based questionnaire at their workplace and they filled out their own questionnaires.
    IRB: Ethical considerations: The study protocol was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board of the College of Health Sciences at Addis Ababa University (AAU).
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    A sum of scores (ranged 12-36) was made and the level was classified into two groups using the Visual Binning in SPSS (low fear/worry ≤29 and high fear/worry >29 score).
    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:
    Finally, this study had several limitations. First, the study had a potential to be affected by selection bias and eligible participants might be excluded. Second, this study was conducted in six public hospitals in Addis Ababa, and may possibly limit the generalization of the results and findings to other public and private hospitals. Third, the study focused on more general populations of healthcare professionals similar to other studies [32,40] rather than healthcare workers who might have direct contact with COVID-19 patients [41]. Finally, the results of this study are based on self-reported data, and the respondents may overestimate or underestimate the responses in a way that they believe is socially acceptable rather than reporting actual or genuine answers. Despite these limitations, the results obtained provide important information to guide health communication efforts that can support prevention efforts of COVID-19 among healthcare professionals.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We found bar graphs of continuous data. We recommend replacing bar graphs with more informative graphics, as many different datasets can lead to the same bar graph. The actual data may suggest different conclusions from the summary statistics. For more information, please see Weissgerber et al (2015).

    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.

  2. Version published to 10.1101/2020.11.04.367896 on bioRxiv