Infection Prevention and Control Practice among Healthcare Professionals in Two Public Hospitals in Edo State, Nigeria.

Background: Effective infection prevention control (IPC) have been shown to reduce healthcare associated infections and to curtail epidemics and pandemics. Compliance by healthcare professionals (HCPs) is an important part of IPC measures. Objectives: This study investigated IPC practice, barriers and enablers among healthcare professionals (HCPs) in secondary and tertiary healthcare facilities. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study among 370 HCPs in a tertiary and secondary healthcare facility. Data was collected using an interviewer-administered questionnaire and the assessment was done using defined scoring systems. SPSS version 22 and Graphpad Instat were used for data analysis. Associations between variables were assessed using Chi-square and student’s t tests with significance level set at p<0.05. Results: Of the 370 participants, 195 (52.7%) had an average score for IPC practice and 269 (72.7%) of participants had good score for hand hygiene. HCPs in tertiary institution had a higher mean score compared to those in secondary institution on IPC (41.52±5.96/41.07±8.46-p=0.0009) and hand hygiene practice (30.72±5.979/29.08±5.63; p=0.1747) respectively. Nurses had a higher mean score compared to physicians on IPC (31.19±4.801/25.60±7.937; p=<0.001) and hand hygiene (43.34±4.170/39.83±3.673; p=0.001). Barriers to IPC are work overload 299(80.8%), lack of adequate materials 319 (86.3%) and lack of hand hygiene facilities 260 (70.8%). Conclusion: This study revealed that many HCPs had moderate practice of IPC and good practice of hand hygiene. Differences in practice among HCPs was observed which can be addressed with hospital leaders creating a stronger IPC culture and routine training of HCPs.