COVID-19 Infection Prevention and PPE Use: A Cross-Sectional Survey of Maternity Health Care Workers' Perspectives and Practices in a Tertiary Hospital, Nigeria.

Background: Maternity healthcare workers play an important role in curbing maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality rates. They must be supported to protect themselves from the adverse impact of Covid 19 infection. This study assessed the knowledge, attitude and practice of maternity health care workers towards personal protective equipment (PPE) in preventing coronavirus infection.

Methodology: This was a prospective cross-sectional survey of consecutively consenting 380 maternity healthcare workers in a tertiary health institution in southwestern Nigeria between September 2021 and December 2021. A self-administered questionnaire was used to capture socio-demographic data and assess the survey participant's knowledge, attitude and practice as regards Covid-19 infection and transmission prevention and PPE use.

Results: Only 22.1% (n = 84) of the respondents considered the pandemic a high health risk; 46.1% (n = 175) considered it a low health risk whilst 31.8% (n =121) of the MHWs considered its risk as moderate. The knowledge of the complete PPE inventory varied significantly with education status (p< 0.0001), 90.1% of the MHWs with knowledge of full inventory had tertiary education, proximity to patients during work (p<0.0001, 80% proximity), and work stations (p < 0.0005, 68.4% clinics). When utilizing PPEs 88.2% (n = 335) reported varying forms of discomfort and only 10.8% (n = 41) reported nil discomfort associated with its use. The commonly reported complaints were increased body heat, skin rashes, excessive sweat, and breathing difficulties.

Conclusion: There is a need to continually educate, train and retrain medical health workers on the need for the provision and proper use of personal protective equipment.