Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Regarding COVID-19 among Healthcare Workers in Uganda: A Cross-Sectional Survey

Onesmus Kamacooko, Jonathan Kitonsa, Ubaldo M. Bahemuka, Freddie M. Kibengo, Anne Wajja, Vincent Basajja, Alfred Lumala, Ayoub Kakande, Paddy Kafeero, Edward Ssemwanga, Robert Asaba, Joseph Mugisha, Benjamin F. Pierce, Robin J. Shattock, Pontiano Kaleebu and Eugene Ruzagira
Additional contact information
Onesmus Kamacooko: Medical Research Council/Uganda Virus Research Institute and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Uganda Research Unit, Entebbe P.O. Box 49, Uganda
Jonathan Kitonsa: Medical Research Council/Uganda Virus Research Institute and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Uganda Research Unit, Entebbe P.O. Box 49, Uganda
Ubaldo M. Bahemuka: Medical Research Council/Uganda Virus Research Institute and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Uganda Research Unit, Entebbe P.O. Box 49, Uganda
Freddie M. Kibengo: Medical Research Council/Uganda Virus Research Institute and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Uganda Research Unit, Entebbe P.O. Box 49, Uganda
Anne Wajja: Medical Research Council/Uganda Virus Research Institute and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Uganda Research Unit, Entebbe P.O. Box 49, Uganda
Vincent Basajja: Medical Research Council/Uganda Virus Research Institute and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Uganda Research Unit, Entebbe P.O. Box 49, Uganda
Alfred Lumala: Kitovu Hospital, Masaka P.O. Box 524, Uganda
Ayoub Kakande: Medical Research Council/Uganda Virus Research Institute and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Uganda Research Unit, Entebbe P.O. Box 49, Uganda
Paddy Kafeero: Medical Research Council/Uganda Virus Research Institute and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Uganda Research Unit, Entebbe P.O. Box 49, Uganda
Edward Ssemwanga: Villa Maria Hospital, Masaka P.O. Box 32, Uganda
Robert Asaba: Our Lady of Consolata Kisubi Hospital, Entebbe P.O. Box 40, Uganda
Joseph Mugisha: Medical Research Council/Uganda Virus Research Institute and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Uganda Research Unit, Entebbe P.O. Box 49, Uganda
Benjamin F. Pierce: Department of Infectious Disease, Imperial College London, Norfolk Place, London W2 1PG, UK
Robin J. Shattock: Department of Infectious Disease, Imperial College London, Norfolk Place, London W2 1PG, UK
Pontiano Kaleebu: Medical Research Council/Uganda Virus Research Institute and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Uganda Research Unit, Entebbe P.O. Box 49, Uganda
Eugene Ruzagira: Medical Research Council/Uganda Virus Research Institute and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Uganda Research Unit, Entebbe P.O. Box 49, Uganda

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 13, 1-12

Abstract: Healthcare workers (HCWs) are at high risk of COVID-19. However, data on HCWs’ knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) toward COVID-19 are limited. Between September and November 2020, we conducted a questionnaire-based COVID-19 KAP survey among HCWs at three hospitals in Uganda. We used Bloom’s cut-off of ?80% to determine sufficient knowledge, good attitude, and good practice, and multivariate Poisson regression with robust variance for statistical analysis. Of 717 HCWs invited to participate, 657 (91.6%) agreed and were enrolled. The mean age (standard deviation) of enrollees was 33.2 (10.2) years; most were clinical HCWs (64.7%) and had advanced secondary school/other higher-level education (57.8%). Overall, 83.9% had sufficient knowledge, 78.4% had a positive attitude, and 37.0% had good practices toward COVID-19. Factors associated with KAP were: Knowledge: being a clinical HCW (aRR: 1.12; 95% CI: 1.02–1.23) and previous participation in health research (aRR: 1.10; 95% CI: 1.04–1.17); Attitude: age > 35 years (aRR: 0.88; 95% CI: 0.79–0.98); Practice: being a clinical HCW (aRR: 1.91; 95% CI: 1.41–2.59). HCWs in Uganda have good knowledge and positive attitude but poor practices towards COVID-19. Differences in COVID-19 KAP between clinical and non-clinical HCWs could affect uptake of COVID-19 interventions including vaccination.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-COV-2; healthcare workers; knowledge; attitude; practices; Uganda (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/13/7004/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/13/7004/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:13:p:7004-:d:585539

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().