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Article Type

Original Study

Abstract

Objectives The aim of the study was to assess the knowledge, the attitude, and the practice of healthcare providers in family health settings regarding infection control measures in Shebin El-kom district. Background Hospital-acquired infections are among the leading causes of death; prevention of hospital-acquired infection therefore must be cost effective, but achievable even with the limited resources for infection control programs in primary healthcare. Participants and methods This was a cross-sectional study conducted in two urban and two rural family health settings in Shebin El-kom district, Menoufia Governorate. Four different settings were selected from cluster sampling followed by stratified random sampling. The self-administered anonymous questionnaire was administered to 412 participants including physicians, nurses, and paramedical personnel. Each healthcare facility was observed for infection control measures by an observation checklist, followed by comparative analysis of different categories of participants. Results The knowledge scores were low to moderate among all participants; only 32.5% had a high level of knowledge, in comparison with 96.6% of the participants who had a positive attitude towards infection control measures. However, 54.3% of the physicians showed a high practice score in comparison with 32.6% of the nurses. Conclusion Standards of infection control practices were not optimum at family healthcare settings, although the reported practice was better than the reported knowledge. Further studies are required to determine the other factors associated with compliance of infection control practices, and training courses on hospital-acquired infection for such personnel would be required.

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