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ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Hand hygiene is one of the simplest and most cost-effective methods required to prevent cross-infection and reduce the spread of HAIs in health care facilities. Globally, HAI’s cause millions of deaths annually, lengthen hospital stay and increase the burden on the health care system. The COVID 19 pandemic has created more awareness on the significance of hand hygiene and the opportunity to position it as an important policy issue. The WHO has proposed a multiple level strategy for hand hygiene programs as interventions to ensure hand hygiene compliance among health care workers and prevent the spread of HAIs. OBJECTIVES: To access the knowledge, attitude, and compliance to hand hygiene practices among primary health care workers in Egor and Oredo local government areas with a view to improving the quality of patient care in these centres. METHODOLOGY: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out in 2023 amongst primary health care workers in Egor and Oredo local government areas, Benin City using a multistage sampling technique. Data was collected using a structured self-administered questionnaire and the WHO observation form. The sample size was calculated by using the population proportion size determination formula for estimating one proportion for a descriptive cross-sectional study. Data was analyzed with IBM SPSS version 25.0 and the level of significance was set as p < 0.05. Data presentation was done using charts, frequency tables and prose. RESULT: A total of 260 respondents with mean age (S.D) 37.51±8.45 participated in this study. Majority had good knowledge 239(92%) and attitude 255(98%) respectively, towards hand hygiene. A large proportion of the respondents reported good compliance to hand hygiene practices 247(95%) while more than half of the respondents were observed to have good hand hygiene compliance 62(54.9%). Profession/Cadre had a statistically significant association with compliance to hand hygiene practices among respondents (p =0.043). CONCLUSION: Primary health care workers in Egor and Oredo local government area had good knowledge, attitude, and compliance to hand hygiene practices. Age, sex, cadre and duration of clinical practice were the major determinants for hand hygiene compliance. This can be further improved by the establishment of a hand hygiene program. KEYWORDS: Hand hygiene, Primary Health Care, Egor, Oredo.
