Assessment Of Infection Prevention And Control Practices Among Health Care Workers In Public Health Facilities In Vihiga Sub County, Kenya

ABSTRACT

Infection prevention and control is not only crucial in protecting patients, health care workers and visitors in health care settings from health care associated infections which are protracted cause of morbidity and mortality but also in preparation and response to communicable disease crisis. Despite the high burden of health care associated infections and need for enhanced prevention and control of these infections in Vihiga Sub County, factors influencing infection prevention and control practices among health care workers had not been determined. The main objective of this study was to assess infection prevention and control practices among health care workers in public health facilities in Vihiga Sub County. The aim was to provide baseline data for implementing infection prevention and control standard precautions in health care facilities. A cross sectional study was carried out in five public health facilities in Vihiga Sub County which were selected through purposive sampling method. Data were collected using self administered structured questionnaires on 173 health care workers, observational checklists and Key Informant Interviews. Collected data were checked, coded and transferred to SPSS version 20 for analysis. Frequency and chi-square were calculated with P-value ≤0.05 being considered significant. There was significant association between awareness of other laws concerning infection prevention and cleaning hands before and after attending to patients (χ² = 11.198, d.f = 3, P-value 0.011). There was association between provision of resources by administration and hand hygiene (χ² = 29.89, d.f = 9, P-value