EFFECT OF ASEPTIC TECHNIQUE EDUCATION ON COMMUNITY HEALTH WORKERS’ COGNITION, ATTITUDE AND WORK RELATED RISK REDUCTION PRACTICES TOWARDS INFECTION IN OYO STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Hospital acquired infection is a serious occupational health hazard among community health workers in Oyo State. Previous studies have focused largely on prevalence and clinical management of Hospital Acquired Infections (HAIs) with little attention on educational interventiontargetted towards its reduction.This study, therefore, was designed to determine the effect of Aseptic Technique Education (ATE) on Community Health Workers’ (CHW) cognition,attitude and Work Related Risk Reduction Practices (WRRP) towards infection in Oyo State, Nigeria. The moderating effects of gender and job tenure were also examined. Extended Parallel Process Model was used, while the pretest-posttest control group quasi experimental design of 2x2x2 factorial matrix was adopted. Two out of the five health zones (Ibadan and Ogbomoso)were randomly selected.Three hundred CHWs in each of the health zones were proportionately selected and assigned to ATE (Ibadan- 244) and control (Ogbomoso- 56) groups. Treatment lasted 10 weeks.Instruments used were Cognitionof HAIs Reduction Practices (RP)(r=0.70), Attitude towards HAIs RP (r=0.85) and Work-related Risk RP(r=0.78) questionnaire. Data were analysed using Analysis of covariance at 0.05 level of significance. Participants’ agewas39.6± 6.9years; majorityof participants had 10 to14 years job tenure, and 87.0% were female. There were significant main effect of treatment on CHWs’ cognition of HAIs RP (F(1,292)=44.90; partial η2=0.13), attitude towards HAIs RP (F(1,292)=14.71; partial η2=0.05) and CHWs’ WRRP (F(1,292)=114.67; partial η2=0.28).Participants exposed to ATE obtained the higher posttest mean scores incognition (31.65), attitude (22.80)and WRRP (34.30)than those in the control group (cognition- 19.97;attitude- 18.20; WRRP- 17.23). There were no significant main effect of gender on cognition, attitude and WRRP. There were significant main effect of job tenure on cognition (F(1,292)=6.66; partial η2=0.02), attitude (F(1,292)=5.42; partial η2=0.17) and WRRP (F(1,292)=4.13; partial η2=0.02).Long job tenure had better enhancement in cognition (26.69), attitude (20.89) towards infection reductionthan short tenure (cognition:24.93;attitude:20.10), whereas short job tenure had better enhancement in WRRP (26.04) than long job tenure(WRRP: 25.48). There were significant two-way interaction effect of treatment and gender oncognition (F(1,292)=3.77; partial η2=0.02), attitude(F(1,292)=4.8; partial η2=0.02) and WRRP (F(1,292)=4.7; partial η2=0.02) in favour ofmale in cognition (32.74) and female in attitude (24.62) and WRRP (35.62) in ATE. There were significant two-way interaction effect of treatment and job tenure on

cognition(F(1,292)=21.96; partial η2=0.06), attitude (F(1,292)=16.09; partial η2=0.05) and WRRP (F(1,292)=18.61; partial η2=0.05 in favour of long job tenure in ATE.The two-way interaction effect of gender and job tenure as well asthe three-way interaction effect were not significant. Aseptic technique education enhanced community health workers’ cognition, attitude and work related risk reduction practices towards infectionin Oyo State. Continual training in aseptic techniques will enhance cognition and positive attitude among short job tenure health workers in Oyo State.