Sadiq Ali Khawaja, Muhammad Adnan Khan, Shahzad Ali Khan, Ramesh Kumar, Atiya Abdul Karim.
Perceptions and attitude of health workers about vulnerability of occupational exposure from Blood - Borne Pathogen.
Pak J Public Health Jan ;6(1):9-11.

Background: To ensure compliance with universal precautions among health workforce, health education of vulnerable group has a key role to play. Objectivesof thisstudy were to measure the burden of accidental exposure and the conceptsabout methodsof primary preventionobservable at first level health care setting. Method: A crosssectional study was conducted at PHC sett ingsof dist rict Tando Mohammad Khan Sindh Pakistan taken over by People's primary healthcare initiative program Sindh. Purposive non probability sampling technique was used to recruit 136 health work farce employed at eleven basic health unit through an informed consent. A validated structured questionnaire (adopted from research study with similar approach), was administered in local language by a research assistant to collect information over perceived occupational susceptibility and t heir stat usof knowledge. Chi-square test was used to see if knowledge about blood born infections had any association with risk perception, tendency of encountering an exposureand opinionsa bout safety precautions. Results: Knowledge about blood borne infections was found to be quite lowamong all class of health workers. 32% ofthe health workers reported a historyof exposure in pastsix months. Prevalence of immunisation against hepatitis B Virus was found to be 72.8% and those with adequate levels of knowledge were more likely to get immunised (n=71, 71.7%). A significant association was observed between level of awareness and perceptions about preventive measures (p-value <0.001) Conclusion: Knowledge is a strong predictorfor perceptionsand influences behaviours of health workforce; is the first step to ensure compliance to safety measure and break the chain of transmission. These findings are suggestive of a need of training for risk prone groups over universal precautions at first level health care settings which cater bulk of health problems in interior S indh. Key Words: Perceptions, occupational exposure, blood borne pathogen, health belief model, healthcare workers.

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