Knowledge And Practices Of Health Workers Toward Vaccine Cold Chain Management And Its Associated Factors In Sheger City Public Health Facilities, Oromia, Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Cold chain management is a continuous and cohesive process of preserving vaccines to ensure their availability and potency. However, the quality of vaccines has been neglected. Protecting vaccines from freeze and heat is considered one of the most poorly addressed problems in vaccine management. Outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases were attributed to loss of vaccine potency either during transportation or storage. In some settings, these outbreaks have been linked with poor vaccine management. Adequate levels of health workers knowledge and practices in vaccine cold chain management are important to keep the potency of vaccines. Objective: To assess the level of knowledge and practices of health workers toward vaccine cold chain management and associated factors in Sheger City public health facilities, Oromia, Ethiopia. Methods: An institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted from May 01 to June 01, 2023, in Eight Sub-cities of Sheger City, Oromia Region, Ethiopia. Two hundred Fifty Five health workers were selected by simple random sampling from 17 health centers and 17 health posts for the study. Data were collected using a pre-tested self-administered questionnaire adapted from WHO and WHO-UNICEF-effective vaccine management assessment tools. The collected data were entered into EPI DATA version 3.1 and analyzed using SPSS version 26.0 software. Binary and multiple logistic regression analyses were carried out to identify factors associated with the knowledge and practice of health workers toward vaccine cold chain management at 95% CI and a p-value of <0.05. Result: A total of 255 respondents participated with a 100% response rate. The overall magnitude of the level of good knowledge and practice of vaccine cold chain management was 148(58%), (95% CI: 52.2%--64.3%) and 133(52.2%), (95% CI: 46.3%-58.4%) respectively. Receiving pre-service training on cold chain management (AOR = 8.2; 95% CI: (2.93-22.99), availability of vaccine cold chain management SOP/guidelines (AOR = 6.55; 95% CI: (2.0-21.36) and receiving supportive supervision (AOR = 4.2; 95% CI: (1.67-10.59) had a statistically significant association with the level of knowledge on cold chain management. Availability of vaccine cold chain management SOP/guidelines (AOR = 2.13; 95% CI: (1.22-3.7) and knowledge of health workers (AOR = 2.32; 95% CI: (1.11- 4.8) had a statistically significant association with good cold chain management practice. Conclusion: there are gaps in knowledge and practice concerning cold chain management. There is an urgent need to, improve the knowledge and practice of health workers on cold chain management through supportive supervision and training.