ความรู้ ทัศนคติและการปฏิบัติในการป้องกันโรคติดเชื้อระบบทางเดินหายใจในผู้ป่วยที่มารับบริการผู้ป่วยนอก

Abstract

Respiratory infectious diseases have severe and long-lasting impacts on the population. This descriptive study aims to determine the knowledge, attitude, and practices in preventing respiratory infectious diseases among patients receiving services at an outpatient department, and to examine the relationship between knowledge, attitude, and practices. Samples included patients who had received services at the outpatient department of a university hospital in the Northern region during July to October 2022. The study instrument was a self-administered questionnaire consisting of questions about patients’ general information, and their knowledge, attitude, and practices in preventing respiratory infectious diseases. The content validity of the instrument was reviewed by 6 experts, and the content validity indices of the knowledge, attitude, and practices parts were .99, .99, and .97, respectively. The reliability of the knowledge, attitude, and practices parts had Cronbach’s alpha coefficients of .88, .79, and .87, respectively. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Spearman’s correlation coefficient was used to analyze the correlation between knowledge, attitude, and practices regarding the prevention of respiratory infectious diseases. The study results showed that the participants had a median score for knowledge regarding the prevention of respiratory infectious diseases at 19 out of a total score of 22 (IQR = 3), a median score for attitude regarding the prevention of respiratory infectious diseases at 45 out of a total score of 60 (IQR = 7), and a median score for practices regarding the prevention of respiratory infectious diseases at 43 out of a total score of 60 (IQR = 15). The knowledge, attitude, and practices in preventing respiratory infectious diseases of the participants were at a high level. Knowledge had a very low level of positive correlation with attitude (r = .300, p < 0.01) attitude had a low level of positive correlation with practices (r = .306, p < 0.01, and practices had a very low level of positive correlation with knowledge (r - .300, p < 0.01) The study results provide guidelines for educating and promoting respiratory infectious disease prevention practices for patients receiving services at outpatient departments.