Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of Health Care Providers towards Disaster and Emergency Preparedness in Mtwara, Tanzania.

BACKGROUND

Over the past decade, the magnitude and intensity of reported natural and humanmade disasters have been rising globally with substantial mortality and long-term morbidity.

OBJECTIVES

To assess the health care providers' knowledge, attitude and practices towards disaster and emergency preparedness at Ligula Regional Referral Hospital in Mtwara, Tanzania.

METHODS

A descriptive and analytical cross-sectional study was conducted among 94 health care providers; and a stratified sampling technique was employed to recruit the participants. Bivariate and multivariable regression analyses were performed using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows version 25.0 (IBM Corp, Armonk, NY, USA) to determine the association between independent and dependent variables. A P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

RESULTS

More than half 50 (53.2%) and more than three-quarters 75 (79.8%) of the participants had adequate knowledge and positive attitude towards disaster and emergency preparedness respectively. Younger participants aged 20-29 years had 5.252 (95% CI 1.313-21.016) times higher odds of having adequate knowledge of disaster and emergency preparedness than the older groups.

CONCLUSIONS

More disaster and emergency preparedness training programs and clinical simulations are needed to enhance the competencies of health care providers in handling disastrous events efficiently.