Knowledge and Practice Of Health Professionals On Cold Chain Management And Associated Factors In West Shoa Zone, Oromia Region, Ethiopia

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.