Knowledge and practice of tuberculosis infection control among health professionals in Northwest Ethiopia; 2011

BACKGROUND: Tuberculosis (TB) is highly prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa, making the risk of infection transmission high in these countries. Despite high prevalence of TB and expected high probability of nosocomial transmission in Ethiopia, a rapid assessment done in 2008 revealed that most health facilities in Ethiopia do not use tuberculosis infection control (TBIC) practices. Patients and providers are therefore at risk of exposure to TB, especially at high case load facilities. The purpose of this study was to assess TBIC knowledge and practices among health professionals working in hospitals in the Amhara region of Northwest Ethiopia. METHODS: An institution-based hybrid study was implemented form August 2010 to January 2011. The subjects were health professionals who were proportionally selected from each hospital. Subjects self-administered a questionnaire that contained sections on socio-demographics and on TBIC knowledge and practice. Those answering ≥60% of knowledge questions correctly and ≥50% of practice questions correctly were considered to have good knowledge and practice, respectively. RESULTS: A total of 313 healthcare professionals were enrolled from four healthcare facilities. The response rate was 96%. Only 18.8% received in-service training. Among those who were trained, 74.4%, 95% CI (69.6, 79.3%) were found to have good knowledge and 63.2%, 95% CI (57.9, 68.6%) good practice on TBIC. Training was found to be a predictor of TBIC knowledge, AOR* 3.386 and 95% CI (1.377, 8.330) while knowledge of TBIC was a strong predictor of good TBIC practice, AOR* 10.667 and 95% CI (5.769, 19.721). CONCLUSIONS: Though the majority of the respondents had good TBIC knowledge and practice, a considerable proportion of healthcare professionals were not trained on TBIC. Respondents trained on TBIC were found to be more knowledgeable than those not trained. Similarly, respondents with good TBIC knowledge were 10 times more likely to have good TBIC practice compared to those with poor TBIC knowledge. Training was not found to have an effect on TBIC practice. *Adjusted Odds Ratio. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12913-014-0593-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.