Impact of Knowledge and Attitude on Health Worker’s Preparedness towards M-pox Treatment and Control: A Cross-Sectional Study

Introduction

M-pox outbreak continues to put pressure on healthcare systems across LMICs. Healthcare workers (HCW) face the highest exposure risks, meanwhile there exists knowledge and attitude gap affecting preparedness for optimum treatment and control. The study assessed the impact of knowledge and attitude on health worker’s preparedness associated with treatment and control of M-pox infection in hospital setting.

Methods

A facility-based cross-sectional survey was carried out among HCW in two selected hospital setting. A 21-item questions adopted from United States CDC standard questionnaire on M-pox was used. A complete enumeration was used to recruit 443 consenting HCW. Descriptive statistics, regression model and moderation analysis were used for statistical analysis at 0.05 significance level.

Results

The descriptive composite score suggest that HCW’s preparedness at the hospitals was higher (M=4.20) than attitudes (M=3.96) and knowledge (M=3.91) regarding M-pox treatment and control. The overall model was significant (F = 3.790, p = 0.002), indicating that profession (β = 0.163, p = 0.002) and gender (β = −0.128, p = 0.009) were significant predictors of preparedness. The primary moderating effects indicated that both knowledge (β = 0.7927, p < 0.001) and attitude (β = 0.7678, p < 0.001) were significant contributors to healthcare preparedness.

Conclusion

Findings highlight the need to intensify education on M-pox infection control and balanced interventions that do not only strengthen knowledge and attitudes toward M-pox infection control but also translate them into effective preparedness strategies.