Knowledge, Attitudes And Practice Among Healthcare Workers Towards COVID 19 Preventive Measures At Women And New Born Hospital Of The University Teaching Hospitals In Lusaka Zambia

ObjectiveTo assess the knowledge, attitude and Practices among healthcare workers towards covid-19 preventive measures at Women and New-born Hospital of the University Teaching Hospitals in Lusaka. MethodsCross-sectional study conducted at WNH-UTH, Lusaka. Convenient sample of 264 frontline healthcare workers responded to self-administered questionnaire to determine their knowledge, attitudes and practices on COVID-19 preventive measures. ResultsMajority (31.9%) of the respondents were aged 25 - 29 years. The study revealed that 63.4% had a good knowledge, 60.3% had positive attitudes and 59.9% had a good practice. Attitude was positively related with practice (r = 0.524, p < 0.001) and knowledge (r = 0.469; p < 0.001). Further, knowledge was positively correlated with practice (r = 0.51; p < 0.001). Bivariate analysis results showed that only high knowledge score (75.6%; p < 0.001) and high attitude score (77.6%; p < 0.001) was associated with an increase in good practice among healthcare workers towards Covid-19 preventive measures. ConclusionThe study showed the need for continued assessment of Knowledge Attitude and Practice among healthcare workers towards Covid-19 preventive measures. It further showed the need of designing interventions aimed at encouraging sustained compliance to preventive measures among healthcare workers to prevent COVID-19 transmission. ARTICLE SUMMARYO_ST_ABSStrengths and LimitationsC_ST_ABSThis study was conducted at Women and Newborn Hospital of the University of Zambia and described the Knowledge, Attitude and Practice among Healthcare workers towards Covid-109 preventive measures. The study showed the need for continued assessment of Knowledge Attitude and Practice among healthcare workers towards Covid-19 preventive measures. This study has the potential to yield significant benefits for the participants and the community at large. The study is reproducible and feasible with results which can be used in designing interventions aimed at encouraging use of preventive measures available to healthcare workers to prevent COVID-19 transmission. The study was a cross-sectional study which limits our ability to make causal inferences. Further the study was conducted at only one hospital which is located in the capital city and so the findings cannot be generalized to HCW in other parts of Zambia.