Babatola Adefunke, Solomon Oluremi, Ojo Temitope, Solomon Olusoji, Olatunya Oladele, Fadare Joseph, Oluwadiya Kehinde
Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria.
Department of Community Medicine, Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria.
Sci Afr. 2023 Mar;19:e01559. doi: 10.1016/j.sciaf.2023.e01559. Epub 2023 Jan 21.
Infection prevention and control remains very key to safety in healthcare settings and community. The use of personal protective equipment is now more relevant especially with the advent of COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to assess the knowledge, attitude, practice and technique of wearing facemask among healthcare workers at Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria.
A descriptive cross-sectional questionnaire-based study explored knowledge, attitude and reported practice on the use of facemask. Also, a checklist was used to directly observe how participants put on and remove facemasks.
Of the 450 respondents, 316 (70.2%) had good knowledge score. Only 255 (56.7%) had good attitude and barely half of the respondents 229 (50.9%) had good practice. However, the majority of those who were observed had good technique of wearing facemask 387 (86.4%). Also, 188 (41.8%) of the healthcare workers believed that face shield alone offers adequate protection against transmission of COVID-19.
Our finding suggests that knowledge does not translate to good practice. Furthermore, the fact that two out of every five healthcare workers held erroneous belief about face shield, and another one-third had poor knowledge points to the need for training and retraining of healthcare workers with the aim of reinforcing the need for consistent and correct use of facemasks. This should have a salubrious effect on the community knowledge of COVID-19 prevention as healthcare workers are believed to be the most common sources of health information to the lay public.
感染预防与控制对于医疗机构和社区的安全仍然至关重要。尤其是随着新冠疫情的出现，个人防护装备的使用变得更加重要。本研究旨在评估尼日利亚阿多-埃基蒂埃基蒂州立大学教学医院医护人员佩戴口罩的知识、态度、实践和技巧。
一项基于问卷调查的描述性横断面研究探讨了口罩使用方面的知识、态度和报告的实践情况。此外，还使用了一份检查表直接观察参与者佩戴和摘除口罩的方式。
在450名受访者中，316人（70.2%）知识得分良好。只有255人（56.7%）态度良好，仅有一半多一点的受访者229人（50.9%）实践良好。然而，在被观察的人员中，大多数人佩戴口罩的技巧良好，有387人（86.4%）。此外，188名（41.8%）医护人员认为仅使用面罩就能提供足够的防护以防止新冠病毒传播。
我们的研究结果表明，知识并不等同于良好的实践。此外，每五名医护人员中有两人对面罩持有错误观念，另有三分之一的人知识水平较差，这表明有必要对医护人员进行培训和再培训，以强化正确且持续佩戴口罩的必要性。鉴于医护人员被认为是普通公众最常见的健康信息来源，这应对社区的新冠疫情预防知识产生有益影响。
