Perceived risk of contracting COVID-19 among healthcare workers in Ghana: A cross-sectional study

The COVID-19 pandemic has stretched many healthcare systems, and it is having detrimental impacts on healthcare workers at the forefront, fighting to save lives. This study sought to assess the relationship between job factors and the perceived risk of contracting COVID-19 at the workplace among healthcare workers and how the relationships are augmented when sociodemographic characteristics are taken into consideration in a limited resource setting (Ghana).

A cross-sectional survey of 455 respondents was conducted.

Overall, 5.93% of the respondents perceived low risk of contracting COVID-19 while 69.45% and 24.62% perceived medium and high risks of contracting COVID-19 at the workplace, respectively. The odds of a high perceived risk versus the combined medium and low perceived risk of contracting COVID-19 at the workplace was 0.461 times lower for healthcare workers who rated their workplace safety systems as good and 0.515 and 0.170 times lower for healthcare workers who indicated occasional and frequent work environment situational assessment (situational awareness), respectively. The odds of high perceived risk were 2.239 times higher for workers who are always emotionally fatigued and 1.829 times higher for healthcare workers who frequently contribute personally to workplace decision-making. The perceived risk of contracting COVID-19 at the workplace was also 1.780 times higher for healthcare workers with tertiary education.

In terms of health and safety at work, this study recommends that there should be an improvement in implementing safety protocols at health facilities to increase the confidence of healthcare workers. Furthermore, social and psychological support and work environment situational assessment, which can reduce stress and anxiety levels among the healthcare workers, should be implemented if contributing factors such as working outside their area of expertise or job scope cannot be eliminated.