Abstract:
Background: Cold chain management is a system used to keep and distribute vaccines in good
condition. The knowledge and practice of health professionals and factors associated with cold
chain management is not adequately investigated in Ethiopia including the study area. So, this study
aimed to assess the knowledge and practice of health professionals on cold chain management and
their associated factors
Objective: To assess knowledge and practice of health professionals on cold chain management
and their associated factors in West Shoa zone, Oromia, Ethiopia, 2021.
Methods: Facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted among health professionals working
on cold chain management among selected public health facilities of West Shoa zone from August
20 to September 30, 2021.All health professionals working on cold chain management were
included in the study and simple random sampling technique by lottery method was used to select
health facilities. Invariable and multivariable logistic regression analyses were conducted to identify
factors associated with health professionals’ knowledge and practice about cold chain management.
Odds ratio with 95% CI was used to assess significant associations at P-value of <0.05. Data were
summarized and presented using texts, graphs and tables.
Results: From the total 225 health professionals participated in the study, 82(36.4%) and
176(78.2%) of the health professionals had good knowledge and practice on cold chain
management respectively. The multivariable logistic regression analyses indicated that, work
experience 2-5 years (AOR= (AOR= 0.32, 95% CI: 0.14-0.75) and 6-10 year 0.354, 95% CI: 0.166-
0.753) and being working in hospitals (AOR=0.453, 95% CI: 0.227-0.923) were factors
significantly associated with knowledge of health profession on cold chain management. Being
health officers 7.2(1.52-34.19) and nurse 4.18(1.06-16.39) and not using guidelines on cold chain
management 0.45(0.22-0.89) were factors significantly associated with practice of health profession
on cold chain management.
Conclusion and recommendation: Work experience and work place were factors affecting the
knowledge of health professionals on cold chain management and not using of guideline on cold
chain management and profession of study participants were factors affecting the practice of health
professionals on cold chain management. To improve the cold chain management, working on
identified factors associated on cold chain is mandatory.
