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Public Health Workers’ Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice Regarding COVID-19: The Impact of the Field Epidemiology Training Program in the Eastern Mediterranean Region

Public Health Workers’ Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice Regarding COVID-19: The Impact of the... Background: Globally, there is a growing need for public health professionals skilled in preventing and responding to the surge of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases. This is particularly important to the Eastern Mediterranean countries that are facing emergencies in addition to the increased public health risks of unprecedented scale during the COVID-19 pandemic. Public health professionals are instrumental in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of detecting and monitoring new cases, conducting investigations, tracing contacts, ensuring patients are being tested, applying isolation and quarantine protocols, providing up-to-date information, educating the community, and producing statistics and models to track disease progression. Objective: This study aims to compare knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) regarding COVID-19 between public health workers (PHWs) that attended the Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP trained) and those who did not attend FETP (non-FETP trained). https://www.iproc.org/2022/1/e36491 iproc 2022 | vol. 8 | iss. 1 | e36491 | p. 1 (page number not for citation purposes) XSL FO RenderX IPROCEEDINGS Sami et al Methods: A multicountry cross-sectional survey was conducted among PHWs who participated in the COVID-19 pandemic in 10 countries in the Eastern Mediterranean Region. An online questionnaire that included demographic information and KAP regarding the COVID-19 pandemic was distributed among PHWs. The scoring system was used to quantify the answers; bivariate and multivariate analyses were performed to compare FETP-trained with non-FETP–trained PHWs. Results: Overall, 1337 PHWs participated, with 835 (62.4%) <40 years of age and 851 (63.6%) male participants. Of them, 423 (31.6%) were FETP trained, including 189 (44.7%) at an advanced level, 155 (36.6%) at an intermediate level, and 79 (18.7%) had basic level training. Compared to non-FETP–trained participants, FETP-trained participants were older and had higher KAP scores. FETP participation was low in infection control and public health laboratories. KAP mean scores for intermediate-level attendees were comparable to the advanced level. Conclusions: FETP-trained participants had better KAP than non-FETP–trained PHWs. Expanding the intermediate level, maintaining the rapid response training, and introducing the laboratory component are recommended to maximize the benefit from the FETP. Infection control, antimicrobial resistance, and coordination are areas where training should be included. (iproc 2022;8(1):e36491) doi: 10.2196/36491 KEYWORDS knowledge; attitude; practice; COVID-19; Field Epidemiology Training Program Edited by Y Khader; this is a non–peer-reviewed article. Submitted 16.01.22; accepted 18.01.22; published 04.02.22. Please cite as: Sami S, Lami F, Rashak HA, Al Nsour M, Eid A, Khader Y, Afifi Sr S, Elfadul M, Ghaleb Y, Letaief H, Ben Alaya N, Ikram A, Akhtar H, Barkia Sr A, Taha HA, Adam R, Islam Saeed Sr KM, Almudarra S, Hassany M, Abu El Sood H, ur Rahman F, Saaed FAK, Hlaiwah MS Public Health Workers’ Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice Regarding COVID-19: The Impact of the Field Epidemiology Training Program in the Eastern Mediterranean Region iproc 2022;8(1):e36491 URL: https://www.iproc.org/2022/1/e36491 doi: 10.2196/36491 PMID: ©Sahar Sami, Faris Lami, Hiba Abdulrahman Rashak, Mohannad Al Nsour, Alaa Eid, Yousef Khader, Salma Afifi Sr, Maisa Elfadul, Yasser Ghaleb, Hajer Letaief, Nissaf Ben Alaya, Aamer Ikram, Hashaam Akhtar, Abdelaziz Barkia Sr, Hana Ahmad Taha, Reema Adam, Khwaja Mir Islam Saeed Sr, Sami Almudarra, Mohamed Hassany, Hanaa Abu El Sood, Fazal ur Rahman, Falah Abdul-kader Saaed, Mohammed Sameer Hlaiwah. Originally published in Iproceedings (https://www.iproc.org), 04.02.2022. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in Iproceedings, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on https://www.iproc.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included. https://www.iproc.org/2022/1/e36491 iproc 2022 | vol. 8 | iss. 1 | e36491 | p. 2 (page number not for citation purposes) XSL FO RenderX http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Iproceedings JMIR Publications

Public Health Workers’ Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice Regarding COVID-19: The Impact of the Field Epidemiology Training Program in the Eastern Mediterranean Region

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Publisher
JMIR Publications
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s). Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution cc-by 4.0
ISSN
2369-6893
DOI
10.2196/36491
Publisher site
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Abstract

Background: Globally, there is a growing need for public health professionals skilled in preventing and responding to the surge of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases. This is particularly important to the Eastern Mediterranean countries that are facing emergencies in addition to the increased public health risks of unprecedented scale during the COVID-19 pandemic. Public health professionals are instrumental in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of detecting and monitoring new cases, conducting investigations, tracing contacts, ensuring patients are being tested, applying isolation and quarantine protocols, providing up-to-date information, educating the community, and producing statistics and models to track disease progression. Objective: This study aims to compare knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) regarding COVID-19 between public health workers (PHWs) that attended the Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP trained) and those who did not attend FETP (non-FETP trained). https://www.iproc.org/2022/1/e36491 iproc 2022 | vol. 8 | iss. 1 | e36491 | p. 1 (page number not for citation purposes) XSL FO RenderX IPROCEEDINGS Sami et al Methods: A multicountry cross-sectional survey was conducted among PHWs who participated in the COVID-19 pandemic in 10 countries in the Eastern Mediterranean Region. An online questionnaire that included demographic information and KAP regarding the COVID-19 pandemic was distributed among PHWs. The scoring system was used to quantify the answers; bivariate and multivariate analyses were performed to compare FETP-trained with non-FETP–trained PHWs. Results: Overall, 1337 PHWs participated, with 835 (62.4%) <40 years of age and 851 (63.6%) male participants. Of them, 423 (31.6%) were FETP trained, including 189 (44.7%) at an advanced level, 155 (36.6%) at an intermediate level, and 79 (18.7%) had basic level training. Compared to non-FETP–trained participants, FETP-trained participants were older and had higher KAP scores. FETP participation was low in infection control and public health laboratories. KAP mean scores for intermediate-level attendees were comparable to the advanced level. Conclusions: FETP-trained participants had better KAP than non-FETP–trained PHWs. Expanding the intermediate level, maintaining the rapid response training, and introducing the laboratory component are recommended to maximize the benefit from the FETP. Infection control, antimicrobial resistance, and coordination are areas where training should be included. (iproc 2022;8(1):e36491) doi: 10.2196/36491 KEYWORDS knowledge; attitude; practice; COVID-19; Field Epidemiology Training Program Edited by Y Khader; this is a non–peer-reviewed article. Submitted 16.01.22; accepted 18.01.22; published 04.02.22. Please cite as: Sami S, Lami F, Rashak HA, Al Nsour M, Eid A, Khader Y, Afifi Sr S, Elfadul M, Ghaleb Y, Letaief H, Ben Alaya N, Ikram A, Akhtar H, Barkia Sr A, Taha HA, Adam R, Islam Saeed Sr KM, Almudarra S, Hassany M, Abu El Sood H, ur Rahman F, Saaed FAK, Hlaiwah MS Public Health Workers’ Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice Regarding COVID-19: The Impact of the Field Epidemiology Training Program in the Eastern Mediterranean Region iproc 2022;8(1):e36491 URL: https://www.iproc.org/2022/1/e36491 doi: 10.2196/36491 PMID: ©Sahar Sami, Faris Lami, Hiba Abdulrahman Rashak, Mohannad Al Nsour, Alaa Eid, Yousef Khader, Salma Afifi Sr, Maisa Elfadul, Yasser Ghaleb, Hajer Letaief, Nissaf Ben Alaya, Aamer Ikram, Hashaam Akhtar, Abdelaziz Barkia Sr, Hana Ahmad Taha, Reema Adam, Khwaja Mir Islam Saeed Sr, Sami Almudarra, Mohamed Hassany, Hanaa Abu El Sood, Fazal ur Rahman, Falah Abdul-kader Saaed, Mohammed Sameer Hlaiwah. Originally published in Iproceedings (https://www.iproc.org), 04.02.2022. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in Iproceedings, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on https://www.iproc.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included. https://www.iproc.org/2022/1/e36491 iproc 2022 | vol. 8 | iss. 1 | e36491 | p. 2 (page number not for citation purposes) XSL FO RenderX

Journal

Iproceedings – JMIR Publications

Published: Feb 4, 2022

Keywords: knowledge; attitude; practice; COVID-19; Field Epidemiology Training Program

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