Abstract:
Background: The prevention of COVID 19 infection requires the strict follow-up of preventive recommendation which in turn depends on the risk perception of individuals including Health Care Workers (HCWs).
Objective: The aim of this study is to assess the magnitude of COVID 19 risk perception and its associated factors among HCWs.
Method: institutional based cross sectional study was conducted at ALERT hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. HCWs were sequentially enrolled into the study and a self-administered questionnaire was used. Descriptive and inferential statistics such as mean, median, Chi square test and logistic regression was used in determining risk perception and its associated factors.
Result: 400 HCWs (51.15% of the total HCW in the hospital) were involved in the study. The mean of the sum scores of knowledge items was 11.42 (SD=1.13) with minimum and maximum score of 6 and 14, respectively. Most of the participants (88%) reported to have been washing their hands with soap and water more than usual. But 74.50% of the participants don’t think restriction of access to religious sites and the lock down could minimize the transmission of the disease. Regarding the participants risk perception, most participants believe their risk of COVID 19 was either moderate (35.99%) or high (39.07%). Regarding the factors associated; the odds of high COVID 19 risk perception among study participants with first and second degree qualifications were 2.34 and 3.38 times higher respectively than HCWs with a diploma qualification. Moreover, the odds of high COVID 19 risk perception were 3.97 higher among participants who receive COVID 19 information from online sources than participants who obtained it from public television.
Conclusion: though HCWs COVID 19 knowledge, attitude and risk perception were low: they have shown considerably good preventive practices. COVID 19 prevention communication needs to be continued and the use of social media needs to be emphasized............................. Thesis available at ACIPH Library