Concerns and preparedness for an avian influenza pandemic: a comparison between community hospital and tertiary hospital healthcare workers.
Little is known about differences in levels of concerns or preparedness for an avian influenza (AI) pandemic among healthcare workers (HCWs) in different types of hospitals. We compared these concerns and preparedness between 326 HCWs of two community hospitals (CHs) and 908 HCWs from a tertiary hospital (TH) using a self-administered questionnaire between March-June 2006. Response rates were 84.2% and 80.0% from the CHs and TH. Most HCWs (71.6%) felt prepared for an AI outbreak and had significant concerns. They perceive an AI pandemic having adverse impacts on their personal life and work, such as people avoiding them (57.1%). A greater percentage of TH compared to CH HCWs expressed concerns such as feeling their jobs put them at great AI exposure (78.3% vs 67.5%, p=0.012). TH HCWs were more likely to report participating in readiness preparation activities, such as training for infection control (90.0% vs 82.2%, p=0.014) and feel that they (74.1% vs 64.7%, p=0.045) and their hospital (86.8% vs 71.8%, p=0.000) were prepared for an outbreak. Healthcare institutions need to include personal, psychological and family concerns on the agenda and increase participation in readiness preparation activities among HCWs to help prepare for such future crises.
Department of Community, Occupational and Family Medicine, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
Seng Kwing
SK
Cheong
Teck Yee
TY
Wong
Heow Yong
HY
Lee
Yuke Tien
YT
Fong
Boon Yeow
BY
Tan
Gerald Ch
GCh
Koh
Kin Ming
KM
Chan
Sin Eng
SE
Chia
David
D
Koh
D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D001717:Birds; D003625:Data Collection; D004196:Disease Outbreaks / Q000517:prevention & control*; D005260:Female; D006282:Health Personnel; D006304:Health Status; D006764:Hospitals, Community; D006801:Humans; D005585:Influenza in Birds / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D008297:Male; D016273:Occupational Exposure; D016272:Occupational Health; D012846:Singapore