Knowledge and attitude towards Mpox among healthcare workers: an intervention study

Khattab, Sally; Nemr, Nader; Kishk, Rania M; Aly, Hebatalla M; Nemr, Nada N.; El-Ghazaly, Amira A; Abdalla, Mohamed O; Elsaid, Noha M Abu Bakr

doi:10.21608/mid.2024.297060.1991

Knowledge and attitude towards Mpox among healthcare workers: an intervention study

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Microbiology and Immunology department, Faculty of medicine, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt

² Endemic and infectious diseases department, Faculty of medicine, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt

³ Public health, community, occupational and environmental medicine department, Faculty of medicine, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt

⁴ Faculty of dentistry, Sinai University, Kantara branch, Egypt.

⁵ Clinical pathology department, Faculty of medicine, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt.

10.21608/mid.2024.297060.1991

Abstract

Background: Health care workers lack knowledge about human Mpox, and most are not confident in their abilities to identify and manage cases. The study's objectives are to improve healthcare workers ' knowledge and attitudes regarding Mpox infections and to help them become confident in diagnosis and management. Methods: This study was carried out in two stages. The first phase involved a cross-sectional survey of 206 healthcare workers, utilizing the snowball sampling approach, to evaluate their knowledge and attitudes regarding Mpox using a self-administered questionnaire. The second phase was a pre-posttest study with stratified random sampling method to improve the participants’ knowledge and attitude towards Mpox among health care workers. Results: In phase one, 7.3% of the 206 participants had good knowledge with a mean knowledge score of 6.2 ± 8.3., and 89.3% had a positive attitude. In phase two, there was significant improvement in the score of knowledge post intervention immediately [28.6 ± 1.7] and after one month [28.5 ± 1.4] compared with before. The improvement in knowledge level was from 5.7% before to 100% after the intervention. The positive attitude frequency also increased from 42.9% to 100% [p < 0.001]. Conclusion: In conclusion the knowledge and attitude level towards human Mpox infection in our study were considered low. After giving the educational training program, the participants’ knowledge and attitude towards Mpox among health care workers was improved.

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