Knowledge and Practice of Health Care Providers Towards Proper Face Mask Utilization to Minimize the Extent of COVID-19 Infection in Amhara Region Referral Hospitals, Ethiopia

INTRODUCTION: The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic began in early 2020, causing tens of thousands of deaths, over a million cases, and widespread socioeconomic disruption. OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to assess health care workers’ knowledge and practice of proper face mask utilization to prevent the spread of COVID-19 infection in Amhara region referral hospitals, Ethiopia. METHODS: A cross-sectional institutional-based quantitative study design was conducted from May 15 to 30/2020 using pre-tested self-administrated questionnaire and analyzed by using SPSS version 20.0. The study included 422 health care providers, and the sample size was determined using a single population proportion formula with the assumption of a p value of 0.05. Data were collected using a consecutive sampling technique from all referral hospitals and were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Finally, the outcome was presented in the form of a text and a table. RESULTS: The overall knowledge and practice of health care providers regarding proper face mask utilization were 278 (65.8%) and 252 (59.5%), respectively. Of them, 284 (67.3%) knew that face masks were worn with the white side facing in, 264 (62.6%) knew that face masks had three layers, and 331 (78.4%) knew that surgical face masks were worn for up to 8 hours. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION: The respondent’s knowledge of proper face mask usage was high, in comparison with another studies but the proper utilization of face mask was relatively low. Ethiopian ministry of health in collaboration with Amhara region, zonal and woreda health institution works together to increase utilization of face mask and to alleviate scarcity of resource and provide training to the health care providers about the proper utilization of face mask to tackle COVID-19.