Assessment of hand washing facilities coverage and handwashing practices in public and private health care facilities in Ndejje Division, Makindye Ssabagabo Municipality, Wakiso district.

Abstract

Introduction: About 80% of the world’s communicable diseases are transmitted by a mere touch of dirty hands. Majority of the health care workers end up not washing their hands because of different reasons. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the proportion of hand washing coverage and the associated factors among health care workers in public and private health care facilities in Ndejje division, Makindye Ssabagabo municipality, Wakiso district. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study design conducted employing both quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection. Within private and public health facilities of Ndejje, 350 health care workers first gave consent and then completed a self-administered structured open-ended paper questionnaire. An observation paper checklist and a paper Focus Group Discussion (FGD) guide for 10 focus groups were also used. The quantitative data was entered in Epidata and exported to SPSS for descriptive univariate analysis. The qualitative data was analysed manually by thematic analysis to generate codes, subthemes, and key themes. Study results were presented into chats, tables and texts. Results: Female health care workers and nurses constituted the majority of the respondents 205 (58.6%), and 117 (33.4%) respectively. Majority 324 (92.6%) of health care workers were from private health facilities. Removal of germs 317 (95.5%) was reported as the major reason for washing hands. We found out that the proportion of hand washing facilities coverage was 97.7%. Health care workers reported that hand washing with soap and water was at times being substituted with use of a hand sanitizer due to its convenience. Conclusions: The proportion of hand washing together with the attitudes towards hand washing were relatively good. Being a nurse was highly associated with washing hands in both private and public health facilities. Hand washing proportion was attributed to the COVID-19 guidelines which therefore need to be highly implemented and maintained by all health care workers even in absence of the pandemic to curb WASH related diseases.