COVID-19 pandemic: an assessment of the risk perception and practice of precautionary measures amongst a group of primary care workers in Nigeria
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Keywords

COVID-19, General Practice Clinic, Precautionary measures, Primary care worker, Risk perception.

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Introduction: The world is currently faced with another pandemic, the COVID-19 pandemic, with healthcare workers at high risk of contracting infection. This study assessed the risk perception of COVID-19 and practice of precautionary measures against its spread by primary care workers.

Methods: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study of primary care workers in the General Practice Clinic (GPC) of University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH), Nigeria, sub-Saharan Africa. A pretested self-administered semi-structured questionnaire was employed to obtain data on Socio-demographic characteristics, Risk perception of COVID-19, and Practice of precautionary measures from the respondents. Obtained data were analysed using IBM SPSS Statistics version 22.0 (Chicago, IL, USA). Chi-square test, Ordinal regression analysis and logistic regression analysis were performed. A p value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Ethical clearance was obtained from the Health Research Ethics Committee.

Results: More of the respondents (39.6%) had moderate risk perception of COVID-19, with significantly more females (27.8%) having high risk perception than males (11.9%); p=0.001. Majority (76.0%) of the respondents had good practice of precautionary measures against COVID-19.

Conclusions: Most HCWs surveyed in this study had moderate-risk perception of COVID-19 and good practice of precautionary measures. Occupation and length of practice were significant predictors of practice of precautionary measures. Training on Infection Prevention and Control measures against COVID-19 was significantly associated with reduced odds of high-risk perception of COVID-19.

Keywords: COVID-19, General Practice Clinic, Precautionary measures, Primary care worker, Risk perception.

 

https://doi.org/10.15167/2421-4248/jpmh2021.62.4.2145
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