Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Nov 18;5(1):100258.
doi: 10.1016/j.infpip.2022.100258. eCollection 2023 Mar.

Prevalence and correlates of knowledge and practices regarding infection prevention and control, and triage in primary healthcare settings: A cross-sectional study in Bangladesh

Animesh Talukder  1 , Antara Roy  1 , Muhammed Nazmul Islam  1 , Mohiuddin Ahsanul Kabir Chowdhury  1 , Malabika Sarker  1   2 , Morseda Chowdhury  3 , Imran Ahmed Chowdhury  3 , Mehadi Hasan  3 , A H M Mahbub Latif  1   4
Affiliations

Prevalence and correlates of knowledge and practices regarding infection prevention and control, and triage in primary healthcare settings: A cross-sectional study in Bangladesh

Animesh Talukder et al. Infect Prev Pract. .

Abstract

Background: Despite the high prevalence of healthcare-acquired infection in resource-limited settings, healthcare workers' (HCWs') knowledge and practices of infection prevention and control (IPC) and triage are not well-researched. We examined thisin Bangladesh's primary healthcare facilities (HCFs) during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: We surveyed 312 HCWs in 94 community clinics (CCs) and 90 family welfare centres (FWCs) in six districts from February to April 2021. We assessed HCWs' self-reported knowledge and observed practices in four domains: personal hygiene, medical instrument processing, waste management, and triage. We constructed a weighted composite knowledge score and estimated the association between knowledge and background characteristics using a generalised linear mixed effects model. Practices were described through univariate analysis.

Findings: On a scale of 100, the mean composite knowledge score was 38.3 (SD: 13.3) overall and 44.0 (SD: 13.1) and 33.8 (SD: 11.6) for FWCs and CCs, respectively. The HCWs of FWCs were more aged, experienced, and educated than those of CCs. Knowledge score was the highest in personal hygiene and the lowest in medical waste segregation. Knowledge was significantly associated with HCWs' designation and education. Concerning practices, not more than one-third of the HCWs or HCFs, on average, followed the recommended protocols, except for wearing face masks while on duty (87.1%) and referring potential COVID-19 patients to higher-level facilities (68.3%).

Conclusions: HCWs' capacity in instrument processing, waste management, and triage needs to be improved through formal education and training initiatives. Our study can contribute to the under-researched IPC and triage domains in resource-limited settings.

Keywords: Bangladesh; COVID-19; Infection prevention and control; Knowledge; Practices; Triage.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. World Health Organization . World Health Organization; 2016. Health care without avoidable infections: the critical role of infection prevention and control.https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/health-care-without-avoidable-in... [Internet] [cited 2021 Aug 1]. Available from:
    1. World Health Organization . World Health Organization; 2021. Infection prevention and control during health care when coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is suspected or confirmed.https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/WHO-2019-nCoV-IPC-2021.1 [Internet]. World Health Organization. [cited 2021 Aug 1]. Available from:
    1. Allegranzi B, Storr J, Dziekan G, Leotsakos A, Donaldson L, Pittet D. The first global patient safety challenge “clean care is safer care”: from launch to current progress and achievements 1 1 on behalf of the world health organization (WHO) global patient safety challenge (lead, professor D pittet), World Alliance for Patient Safety, WHO Headquarters, Geneva, Switzerland. J Hosp Infect [Internet]. 2007 Jun 1 [cited 2022 Oct 28];65(SUPPL. 2):115–23. Available from: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17540254/. - PubMed
    1. Rosenthal V.D., Al-Abdely H.M., El-Kholy A.A., AlKhawaja S.A.A., Leblebicioglu H., Mehta Y., et al. International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium report, data summary of 50 countries for 2010-2015: Device-associated module. Am J Infect Control. 2016 Dec 1 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27742143/ [Internet] [cited 2022 Oct 28];44(12):1495–504. Available from: - PubMed
    1. Kennedy E.H., Greene M.T., Saint S. Estimating hospital costs of catheter-associated urinary tract infection. J Hosp Med. 2013 Sep https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24038833/ [Internet] [cited 2022 Oct 28];8(9):519–22. Available from: - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources