Abstract:
Introduction: Healthcare professionals (HCPs) are at the frontline of defense in combating
COVID-19 and they play a critical role, not only in the management of COVID-19 patients, but
also in ensuring adequate infection prevention and control (IPC) measures in healthcare settings.
The use of appropriate PPE by healthcare workers in particular during the current COVID-19
pandemic is highly recommended. Health professionals‟ compliance with proper utilization of
PPE during the COVID-19 pandemic is still unknown in Ethiopia. Consequently, having poor
compliance to correct utilization of PPE during the COVID-19 pandemic could harm the scarce
health system of developing countries like Ethiopia.
Objectives: To assess the utilization of personal protective equipment and its associated factors
among health care workers at COVID -19 treatment center in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 2021.
Methods: A hospital-based cross-sectional study design were conducted from April 5 to May 5,
2021 at three public hospitals dedicated for COVID-9 treatment in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 2021.
A stratified sampling followed by simple random sampling techniques were used to select 422
health care workers from all COVID 19 treatment center during the study period. Data were
coded, cleaned and entered into Epi Data 3.1 and entered in to SPSS version 23 for analysis. All
independent variables were fitted separately into bivariate analysis to evaluate the degree of
association with utilization of PPE. Then, variables with a p-value < 0.25 were exported to
multivariate analysis to control confounders. The odds ratio(OR) at p value <0.05, with a 95 %
confidence interval (CI) was used to test the statistical significance of variables.
Result: Total response rate were 100%. The average age of the 422 participants was 29.7 ±4.5
(SD) years. The prevalence of PPE utilization among healthcare workers during interaction with
COVID-19 patients were 47.2% at (95% CI: 42.44-51.96). Result in this study revealed that
independent predictors of personal protective utilization include availability of PPE
[AOR:1.97,95%CI:(1.18-3.28)], attended IP training [AOR:2.5,95% CI:(1.45-4.40)], follow
work guideline [AOR:2.8,95% CI: (1.29-5.83)], being satisfied with job/work [AOR:2.04,95%
CI: (1.11-3.76)] and Job category (permanent/temporary worker) (AOR: 0.54(0.32-0.91)).
Conclusion: Utilization of PPE among healthcare professional during interacting with COVID 19 patients was 47.2%. Predictors such as availability of personal protective equipment, job ix
category, IP training, job satisfaction and using COVID-19 prevention and control guideline
were significantly associated with utilization of PPE.
Recommendation: The risks of COVID-19 infection among HCPs through providing proper
and adequate PPE, IP training, to satisfied HCWs, to use work guideline should be strengthened
and needs to be a top priority for treatment center administrative (for Eka kotebe general hospital
COVID-19 treatment centers, for millennium hall COVID centers, for Addis Ababa field
hospital), Ministry of Health and the government of Ethiopia.
