Abstract:
Background. In many studies, compliance with standard precautions among healthcare workers was reported to be inadequate.
Objective. The aim of this study was to assess compliance with standard precautions and associated factors among healthcare
workers in northwest Ethiopia. Methods. An institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted from March 01 to April 30,
2014. Simple randomsampling technique was used to select participants. Data were entered into Epi info 3.5.1 and were exported to
SPSS version 20.0 for statistical analysis.Multivariate logistic regression analyses were computed and adjusted odds ratio with 95%
confidence interval was calculated to identify associated factors. Results.The proportion of healthcare workers who always comply
with standard precautions was found to be 12%. Being a female healthcare worker (AOR [95% CI] 2.18 [1.12–4.23]), higher infection
risk perception (AOR [95% CI] 3.46 [1.67–7.18]), training on standard precautions (AOR [95% CI] 2.90 [1.20–7.02]), accessibility of
personal protective equipment (AOR [95% CI] 2.87 [1.41–5.86]), and management support (AOR [95% CI] 2.23 [1.11–4.53]) were
found to be statistically significant. Conclusion and Recommendation. Compliance with standard precautions among the healthcare
workers is very low. Interventionswhich include training of healthcareworkers on standard precautions and consistentmanagement
support are recommended.
