Healthcare workers (HCWs) are frontline responders to emergency infectious disease outbreaks such as COVID-19. We investigated factors associated with adherence to personal protective behaviours in UK HCWs during the COVID-19 pandemic using an online cross-sectional survey of 1035 healthcare professionals in the UK. Data were collected between 12th and 16th June 2020. Adjusted logistic regressions were used to separately investigate factors associated with adherence to use of personal protective equipment, maintaining good hand hygiene, and physical distancing from colleagues. Adherence to personal protective measures was suboptimal (PPE use: 80.0%, 95% CI [77.3 to 82.8], hand hygiene: 67.8%, 95% CI [64.6 to 71.0], coming into close contact with colleagues: 74.7%, 95% CI [71.7 to 77.7]). Adherence to PPE use was associated with having adequate PPE resources, receiving training during the pandemic, lower perceived fatalism from COVID-19, higher perceived social norms and higher perceived effectiveness of PPE. Adherence to physical distancing was associated with one's workplace being designed, using markings to facilitate physical distancing and receiving training during the pandemic. There were few associations with adherence to hand hygiene. Findings indicate HCWs should receive training on personal protective behaviours to decrease fatalism over contracting COVID-19 and increase perceived effectiveness of protective measures.
Adherence to protective measures among health care workers in the UK; a cross-sectional study