Effect of Training on Knowledge and Attitude of Health Care Workers towards Health Management Information System in Primary Health Centres in Northwest Nigeria.

BACKGROUND

An effective health information system (his) generates information to enable decision makers make evidence-based decisions on health policy and allocate scarce resources. Health care workers at all levels within the health system need the knowledge and the right attitude towards hmis recognizing that they are the keys to recording accurate and reliable data.

STUDY DESIGN

A quasi-experimental study design was used, which consisted of baseline, intervention and end line components.

RESULTS

The study was carried out among a study and a control group, each consisting of 76 phc workers. The mean age was 34.6 + 8.3 years for the study group and 33.7 + 8.4 years for the control group. The baseline level of good knowledge in the study group increased from 13.2% to 48.7% at end line. The increase was statistically significant (p-value <0.001). In the control group the level of good knowledge increased from 6.6% to 9.7%. The increase was not statistically significant (p-value 0.714). Prior to the intervention, 52.6% of the study group had positive attitude towards hmis which increased to 59.2% after the intervention (p-value 0.414). In the control group, it decreased from 59.2% at baseline to 58.3% at end line (p-value 0.117). The changes in attitude in both groups were, however, not statistically significant.

CONCLUSION

This study showed that HMIS training intervention achieved a significant improvement in knowledge and a marginal improvement in the attitude of phc workers. Thus, the training intervention was effective in improving the knowledge and attitude towards hmis in the study group.