Compliance with infection prevention practice and associated Factors among health Professionals in public hospitals of KembataTembaro Zone, South Ethiopia

Abstract

Background Infection in hospitals and other healthcare settings is a problem for health services around the world and main public health problemwhich causes major health risks that leads to morbidity, mortality and cost.The possibility of transmitting infections in health care setting is higher if essential infection prevention control practices are not accomplished. Despite a significant improvement in facility of health institutions and in the number and kind of health task forces in Ethiopia particularly in the last two decades, reports showed that there is still high burden of Hospital acquired infections on the other hand, except for some few studies on compliance very limited evidences are available with regard to the level of compliance of professionals with infection prevention practice and associated factors in the country in general and in the study area in particular. Objective: To assess compliance with infection prevention practice among health professionals and associated factors in public hospitals in KembataTembaro Zone, SNNP Regional state. Methods: Institution based cross-sectional study was conducted from march 10 -April 20/2019 in all public hospitals of KembataTembaro Zone, SNNP Regional state, a total of 399 health care professionals were taken from respective hospitals byproportional allocation to size of number of professional hospitals. The data collection procedure was employed using quantitative and qualitative method. In quantitative method interviewer administered structured questionnaire was used, whereas for qualitative part FGD guide was used. Data entry was made using the Epidata 3.1 software. Then the data were exported to SPSS statistical package version 20 for analysis.Bivariate logistic analysis was carried out to identify variables that are associated with compliance of health professionals towards infection prevention practice. Those variables in bivariate logistic analysis whose p value is less than 0.25 are included in multiple logistic regressions.Adjusted odds ratios (AOR) with corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI) were used to quantify the strength of association and p-value ≤ 0.05 was used to declare statistical significance.Ethical clearance was obtained from Jimma University Institute of Health Institutional Review Board Result A total of 391 health professions were participated yielding the response rate of 97.9%. The findings showed that, among 391 health professions, 280(71.6%) respondents were knowledgeable on infection prevention and 57.8% are compliant towards infection prevention. The overall reported hand hygiene practice was 69.8.Report on injection and sharp segregation practice shows that346(88.5%) respondents were practicing safe injection and 306(78.6%) health professions were using safety box for sharp waste segregation. Sex, Marital status, profession, Knowledge on IP and Attending training programs on IP were found to be significantly associated with infection prevention practice at Pvalue <0.05.From qualitative data, high professionals turnover, heavy patient load and perceived understaffing, frustration with follow up from hospitals, and negligence of health professionals were classified as barriers. Government commitments to hospitals infection prevention, frequency and decentralized trainings on infection prevention, staff knowledge about infection prevention, support from NGOs were facilitators for safe infection prevention practice. Conclusion Compliance with IPP among the health professionals is low in sharp waste segregation and PPE utilization. Recommendation the study finding suggests hospitals a need for improvement in the supply of materials for IP and Sharp Waste should be segregated and disposed per standard.