Level of Compliance and Predictors with Personal COVID-19-preventive measures Among Office Government Employees Returning to work in the post-epidemic period in Western Ethiopia: A Multicenter Cross-sectional Study

Background The contemporary global issues, COVID-19 pandemic continued causing unprecedented impact on the public health, occupational health and the global economy. Keeping compliance with personal preventive measures is a vital tool for managing COVID-19 pandemic control and returning to work as no pharmaceutical treatments are currently available in Ethiopia. Although compliance with COVID -19 personal preventive measures (CPPMs) and predictors is well addressed in healthcare settings, data on the level of CPPMs and its determinants among government employees working in offices worldwide, including Ethiopia, is limited. This paper is aimed to fill this gaps. Methods We applied a cross-sectional study design from February to March, 2021. The participants were government workers working in offices who had resumed work. Stratified followed by simple random sampling technique was used to select 422 study participants from 30 government offices that had resumed work. Data were collected using a pre-tested and structured interviewer-administered questionnaires and analyzed by STATA 14 software. The significance of associations was established at p< 0.05 and adjusted odds ratio (AOR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) in the multivariable model. Results Response rate 95.44% (N=394). The study found 22.3% (88) of study participants (95% CI = 18.5, 26.6) had high compliance with COVID -19 personal preventive measures during past month. Female workers were 2.80 times more likely than males to comply with COVID-19 personal preventive measures (AOR: 2.80, 95%CI (1.10, 7.12), favorable attitude towards COVID-19 prevention measures (AOR: 13.73, 95% CI (4.85, 38.83), high-risk perception of COVID-19 infections (AOR: 2.34; 95% CI (1.24, 4.41), and high misconception about COVID-19 (AOR : 3.92, 95% CI (1.45, 10.62) were predicted better compliance with COVID-19 PPMs (P < 0.05). Conclusions In sum, little proportion of sampled study participants complied with COVID -19 personal preventive measures. Sex, attitudes, risk perception, and misconception have all been identified as significant risk factors. Actions are needed to strengthen COVID -19 personal preventive measures among government employees to maintain COVID -19 control following work resumption. In the future, it’s vital to work on government employees’ attitudes and perceptions in order to improve compliance.