Level of Preparedness for COVID-19 by Primary Healthcare Workers in Rivers State, Nigeria: A Facility Cross-sectional Survey

Introduction: The primary healthcare workers (PHCWs) may be faced with a higher risk of infection of COVID-19, due to inadequate personal protective equipment (PPE) and lack of training on the disease control and prevention. This study was designated to evaluate the knowledge, attitude and practices (KAP) of PHCWs about COVID-19 in Rivers State, Nigeria.

Methods: A facility cross-sectional survey was conducted involving the primary healthcare workers in Rivers State, Nigeria. The association between the KAP and demographic characteristics were tested with the Chi-square test, while the association existing among KAP were evaluated with Pearson correlation coefficient. Statistical significance was evaluated at P<0.05.

Results: The proportion of respondents with good scores in knowledge, attitude, and COVID-19 related practices are 86.4% (10.66 ± 2.40), 85.0% (8.28 ± 1.94), and 97.3% (8.34 ± 1.39) respectively. Gender, occupation, and years of experience are associated with knowledge, whilst years of experience and marital status are associated with the attitude and level preventive practices; knowledge score also has significant positive linear associations with both attitude and practices ( scores towards COVID-19.

Conclusion: Based on these findings, we suggest that public health education programs should be sustained, and staff should be expose to more training and workshop regarding COVID-19 preventive practices. Furthermore, adequate personnel preventive equipment should be deployed at the primary healthcare facilities, as this will instill the right attitude and confidence in carrying out their duties without the fear of contracting the disease.