Healthcare workers’ compliance with social and behavioural infection control measures during emerging infectious disease outbreaks (search on 4 May 2020)
Citation: Brooks SK, Greenberg N, Wessely S, et al. Factors affecting healthcare workers’ compliance with social and behavioural infection control measures during emerging infectious disease outbreaks: rapid evidence review. BMJ Open. 2021;11(8):e049857.
Language: Abstract and full text only available in EN.
Free to view: Yes.
Funding sources: UK National Institute for Health Research Health Protection Research Unit (NIHR HPRU).
What is this? Poor compliance with personal protective behaviours among healthcare staff can increase the transmission of infectious diseases.
In this rapid review, the authors searched for studies of healthcare workers’ compliance with infection control measures in hospital settings. They restricted their searches to articles published in English and did the search on 4 May 2020. They included 56 studies from Australia (1 study), Canada (13), China (5), Greece (1), India (1), Iran (1), Netherlands (2), Saudi Arabia (7), Singapore (7), South Korea (5), Taiwan (1), Turkey (1), United Kingdom (1), USA (4), Vietnam (1), and studies from multiple countries (5).
What was found: At the time of this review, role specific training, emphasizing the importance of using personal protective equipment (PPE) and the risk of infection, better communication of guidelines, surveillance of staff and positive reinforcement of adherence to control measures may improve healthcare workers’ compliance with infection control measures
Interventions targeted at healthcare workers with different roles, different levels of patient contact, or cultures may be beneficial.
Healthcare workers who do not work directly with infected patients, in emergency department (ED) settings or in intensive care units (ICU) may benefit from additional support on infection control guidance.
At the time of this review, the following interventions were found to be unlikely to be useful in improving healthcare workers’ compliance with infection control measures: age and gender specific training, training focused on increasing knowledge about the outbreak and training on how to use PPE without emphasizing its importance.
Compliance may differ internationally because of communication differences between countries, different risk perceptions, cultural difference or different training received by healthcare workers.
Implications: The authors of the review recommended provision of training and education tailored for different occupational roles within the healthcare setting, managerial staff ‘leading by example’, ensuring adequate resources for infection control and timely provision of practical evidence-based infection control guidelines. They stated that future reviews should consider newer studies on COVID-19 especially those that span a longer duration of the pandemic.
Other considerations: The authors of the review discussed their findings in the context of place of residence, culture, occupation, and education.
This summary was prepared by Yasmeen Saeed, edited by Firas Khalid and finalized by Mike Clarke.