Factors Affecting Health Care Professionals’ Adherence to COVID-19 Precautionary Measures

Figures & data

Table 1 Study Participants’ Preventive Behavior Frequency Distribution

Statement	Number (%)
	Always	Frequently	Sometimes	Seldom	Never
1: I wear my mask when I am in the clinical setting	868 (88.8%)	80 (8.2%)	25 (2.6%)	5 (0.5%)	0 (0%)
2: I keep at least a 2-meter distance between me and others	594 (60.7%)	282 (28.8%)	91 (9.3%)	11 (1.1%)	0 (0%)
3: I wear my personal protective equipment (PPE) whenever I encounter a COVID-19 positive patient	867 (88.7%)	83 (8.5%)	20 (2%)	8 0.8%	0 (0%)
4: I wash my hands before and after encountering any patient	843 (86.2%)	107 (11%)	23 (2.3%)	5 (0.5%)	0 (0%)
5: I wash my hands for at least 20 seconds	778 (79.6%)	147 (15%)	45 (4.6%)	7 (0.7%)	1 (0.1%)
6: I am aware of and follow my healthcare center’s infection control guidelines	807 (82.5%)	138 (14.1%)	31 (3.2%)	1 (0.1%)	1 (0.1%)
7: I intend to report any contact I may have had with any COVID-19 positive people, outside of my clinical practice	781 (79.9%)	138 (14.1%)	41 (4.2%)	12 (1.2%)	6 (0.6%)
8: I intend to report and abstain from attending my healthcare center if I experience any symptoms suggestive of COVID-19	758 (77.5%)	143 (14.6%)	38 (3.9%)	30 (3.1%)	9 (0.9%)
9: My PPE consists of a gown, gloves, face shield/goggles and a N95 mask, when I encounter a COVID-19 positive patient	695 (71.1%)	163 (16.7%)	81 (8.3%)	25 (2.5%)	14 (1.4%)
10: I follow these steps when donning my PPE: gather PPE, ensure hand hygiene, put on gown, put on mask, put on face shield/goggles, put on gloves, enter the room	786 (80.4%)	124 (12.7%)	55 (5.6%)	9 (0.9%)	4 (0.4%)
11: I follow these steps when removing my PPE: remove the gloves (without hand contamination), remove gown, exit the room, perform hand hygiene, remove face shield/goggles, remove face mask (without touching exterior), dispose in trash receptacle, perform hand hygiene again.	761 (77.8%)	144 (14.8%)	50 (5.1%)	14 (1.4%)	9 (0.9%)

Table 2 Comparison of Predictive Behavior Mean Ranks Among Participants’ Subgroups

Demographic Factor		N (%)	Preventive Behavior Mean Ranks	P value
Gender	Female	617 (63.1%)	493.60	0.54
	Male	361 (36.9%)	482.49
Age groups	20–29 years	414 (42.3%)	485.01	0.98
	30–39 years	316 (32.3%)	492.29
	40–49 years	171 (17.5%)	490.40
	50–59 years	59 (6%)	507.83
	60–69 years	18 (1.8%)	475.14
Nationality	Saudi	850 (86.9%)	482.71	0.05
	Non-Saudi	128 (13.1%)	534.59
Ethnicity	Black African	13 (1.3%)	361.27	0.40
	Caucasian	22 (2.2%)	481.55
	Indian Asian	136 (13.9%)	493.54
	Middle Eastern	807 (82.5%)	491.10
Working sector	Governmental	790 (80.8%)	492.44	0.49
	Private	188 (19.2%)	477.13
Role in health care	Dentist	63 (6.4%)	434.56	0.01
	Technician/Technologist	214 (21.9%)	485.57
	Allied Health Personnel^a	143 (14.6%)	483.73
	Nurse	191 (19.5%)	551.18
	Pharmacist	61 (6.2%)	446.97
	Physician	306 (31.3%)	476.24
COVID-19 knowledge level	More	535 (54.7%)	515.02	0.001
	Less	443 (45.3%)	458.68
COVID-19 attitude	Positive	527 (53.9%)	554.84	< 0.001
	Negative	451 (46.1%)	413.14
Fear of COVID-19	High	532 (54.4%)	518.63	< 0.001
	Low	446 (45.6%)	454.75
Risk Level of COVID-19	High	3 (0.3%)	524.17	0.53
	Medium	122 (12.5%)	515.00
	Low	853 (87.2%)	485.73

Notes: ^aAllied Health Personnel: Those who assist and facilitate the work of physicians in the health care system such as clinical nutritionist, physiotherapist, respiratory therapist etc.

Table 3 Prediction of Preventive Behavior Based on Participants’ Demographics, COVID-19 Knowledge, Attitude, Fear, and Risk Scores

Parameters	P value	Odds Ratios	95% Confidence Interval
			Lower	Upper
Gender	0.266	0.812	0.562	1.172
Age	0.806	1.02	0.871	1.194
Nationality	0.059	0.597	0.377	0.947
Ethnicity	0.063	0.692	0.279	1.722
Working sector	0.857	0.968	0.676	1.385
Role in health care	0.186	0.838	0.574	1.225
COVID-19 knowledge	<0.001	2.34	0.914	0.968
Covid-19 attitude	<0.001	1.87	0.801	0.901
Covid-19 fear	<0.001	1.53	0.938	0.975
Covid-19 risk	0.074	0.811	0.645	1.021

Table 4 Correlation of Preventive Behavior with Covid-19 Knowledge, Attitude, Fear, and Risk Scores

		Knowledge Score	Attitude Score	Fear Score	Risk Score
Preventive behavior score	Spearman correlation coefficient	0.151	0.293	0.125	0.001
	P value	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.986