Knowledge, attitude, and practice of healthcare workers toward COVID-19 and its prevention in Ethiopia: A multicenter study

BACKGROUND: An emerging respiratory disease abbreviated as coronavirus disease 2019 was first reported in December 2019 in Wuhan city of China. The virus is zoonotic and tends to be transmitted between animals to humans and humans to humans. The major route of transmission of coronavirus disease 2019 is droplet and close contact. The Ethiopian Ministry of Health has initiated training for health care workers at a different level. Thus, the main objective of this study is to assess the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of health workers in Ethiopia toward coronavirus disease 2019 and its prevention techniques. METHOD: An institution-based multicenter cross-sectional study was conducted in each of eight teaching and referral hospitals. A total of 422 Ethiopian healthcare workers were selected for the assessment of knowledge, attitude, and practice toward coronavirus disease 2019. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire. A logistic regression model was used to identify factors associated with the attitude and knowledge of healthcare workers toward coronavirus disease 2019 at a significance level of p < 0.05. RESULT: Three hundred ninety-seven healthcare workers participated in the study, with a response rate of 94%. Among these, 88.2% and 94.7% of respondents had good knowledge and positive attitudes, respectively. A respondent with a history of chronic medical illness (odds ratio: 0.193, 95% confidence interval: 0.063–0.593), social media, telecommunication, and television/radio as a source of information were significantly associated with knowledge (odds ratio: 3.4, 95% confidence interval: 1.5–7.4, OR: 4.3, 95% confidence interval: 1.3–14.3 and odds ratio: 3.2, 95% confidence interval: 1.4–7.2). In addition, respondents with a history of chronic medical illness were significantly associated with a negative attitude toward coronavirus disease 2019. CONCLUSION: The knowledge and attitude were good while; the practice was relatively low. Sources of information such as social media, telecommunication, and television/radio were positively associated with healthcare workers' knowledge about coronavirus disease 2019.