Institute of Psychiatry Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK
School of Psychology, University of Derby, Derby, UK.
Emerg Med J. 2022 Feb;39(2):100-105. doi: 10.1136/emermed-2021-211454. Epub 2021 Nov 30.
Healthcare workers (HCWs) are frontline responders to emergency infectious disease outbreaks such as COVID-19. To avoid the rapid spread of disease, adherence to protective measures is paramount. We investigated rates of correct use of personal protective equipment (PPE), hand hygiene and physical distancing in UK HCWs who had been to their workplace at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and factors associated with adherence.
We used an online cross-sectional survey of 1035 UK healthcare professionals (data collected 12-16 June 2020). We excluded those who had not been to their workplace in the previous 6 weeks, leaving us with a sample size of 831. Respondents were asked about their use of PPE, hand hygiene and physical distancing in the workplace. Frequency of uptake was reported descriptively; adjusted logistic regressions were used to separately investigate factors associated with adherence to use of PPE, maintaining good hand hygiene and physical distancing from colleagues.
Adherence to personal protective measures was suboptimal (PPE use: 80.0%, 95% CI 77.3 to 82.8; hand hygiene: 67.8%, 95% CI 64.6 to 71.0; coming into close contact with colleagues: 74.7%, 95% CI 71.7 to 77.7). Adherence to PPE use was associated with having received training about health and safety in the workplace for COVID-19, greater perceived social pressure to adopt the behaviour and availability of PPE. Non-adherence was associated with fatalism about COVID-19 and greater perceived difficulty of adopting protective measures. Workplace design using markings to facilitate distancing was associated with adherence to physical distancing.
Uptake of personal protective behaviours among UK HCWs at the start of the pandemic was variable. Factors associated with adherence provide insight into ways to support HCWs to adopt personal protective behaviours, such as ensuring that adequate PPE is available and designing workplaces to facilitate physical distancing.
医护人员（HCWs）是应对 COVID-19 等紧急传染病暴发的一线响应者。为避免疾病的快速传播，遵守防护措施至关重要。我们调查了在 COVID-19 大流行开始时曾前往工作场所的英国 HCWs 正确使用个人防护设备（PPE）、手部卫生和保持身体距离的比率，以及与遵守情况相关的因素。
我们使用了一项针对 1035 名英国医疗保健专业人员的在线横断面调查（数据收集于 2020 年 6 月 12 日至 16 日）。我们排除了过去 6 周内未去过工作场所的人员，因此样本量为 831 人。受访者被问及他们在工作场所使用 PPE、手部卫生和保持身体距离的情况。采用描述性方法报告频率；分别使用调整后的逻辑回归调查与遵守使用 PPE、保持良好手部卫生和与同事保持身体距离相关的因素。
个人防护措施的遵守情况不理想（PPE 使用：80.0%，95%CI 77.3 至 82.8；手部卫生：67.8%，95%CI 64.6 至 71.0；与同事近距离接触：74.7%，95%CI 71.7 至 77.7）。遵守 PPE 使用与接受过 COVID-19 工作场所健康和安全培训、对采取该行为的感知社会压力更大以及 PPE 的可用性有关。不遵守与对 COVID-19 的宿命论和采取防护措施的难度更大有关。使用标记来促进隔离的工作场所设计与遵守身体距离有关。
在大流行开始时，英国 HCWs 采取个人防护行为的情况各不相同。与遵守情况相关的因素提供了深入了解如何支持 HCWs 采取个人防护行为的方法，例如确保有足够的 PPE 可用，并设计工作场所以促进身体距离。
