Knowledge and utilization of computer among health workers in Addis Ababa hospitals, Ethiopia: computer literacy in the health sector

BMC Research Notes

Eshetu Girma³  Solomon Meseret¹  Gashaw Andargie¹  Ebrahim Mohammed² 

[1] School of Public Health, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Gondar, Gondar, Ethiopia;Samara University, Samara, Ethiopia;Department of Health Education and Behavioral Sciences, Jimma University, Jimma, Ethiopia

关键词: Computer literacy;    Health workers;    Health care;    Utilization;    Knowledge;    Computer;   

Others  :  1143240
DOI  :  10.1186/1756-0500-6-106

 received in 2012-10-03, accepted in 2013-03-15,  发布年份 2013

【 摘 要 】

Background

Incorporation of information technology advancements in healthcare has gained wide acceptance in the last two decades. Developed countries have successfully incorporated information technology advancements in their healthcare system thus, improving healthcare. However, only a limited application of information technology advancements is seen in developing countries in their healthcare system. Hence, this study was aimed at assessing knowledge and utilization of computer among health workers in Addis Ababa hospitals.

Methods

A quantitative cross-sectional study was conducted among 304 health workers who were selected using stratified sampling technique from all governmental hospitals in Addis Ababa. Data was collected from April 15 to April 30, 2010 using a structured, self-administered, and pre-tested questionnaire from five government hospitals in Addis Ababa. The data was entered into Epi Info version 3.5.1 and exported to SPSS version 16. Analysis was done using multinomial logistic regression technique.

Results

A total of 270 participants, age ranging from 21 to 60 years responded to the survey (88.8% response rate). A total of 91 (33.7%) respondents had an adequate knowledge of computers while 108 (40.0%) had fair knowledge and 71(26.3%) of the respondents showed inadequate knowledge. A total of 38(14.1%) were adequately utilizing computers, 14(5.2%) demonstrated average or fair utilization and majority of the respondents 218(80.7%) inadequately utilized computers. Significant predictor variables were average monthly income, job satisfaction index and own computer possession.

Conclusions

Computer knowledge and utilization habit of health workers were found to be very low. Increasing accessibility to computers and delivering training on the use of computers for workers will increases the knowledge and utilization of computers. This will facilitate the rate of diffusion of the technology to the health sector. Hence, programs targeted at enhancing knowledge and skill of computer use and increasing access to computer should be designed. The association between computer knowledge/skill and health care delivery competence should be studied.

【 授权许可】

   
2013 Mohammed et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

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