The Influence of Selective Factors on the Rate of Coronavirus 2019 Infection among Professional Nurses at Samut Prakan Hospital: A Retrospective Study

Abstract

        This retrospective case-control study aims to determine the factors that influence the rate of COVID-19 infection among professional nurses in Samutprakan Hospital. The 8 factors of interest are age, body mass index, chronic disease, family members infected COVID-19, place of work (department), working hours per week, perceived susceptibility to infection with COVID-19, and perceived barriers to COVID-19 prevention. A total of 250 professional nurses employed at Samutprakan Hospital were selected for the study. They were randomly assigned to either the infected group (125 individuals) or the uninfected group (125 individuals). The questionnaire, which was developed utilizing as a tool, was divided into four parts: 1) a personal data form; 2) a record of working hours per week; 3) perceived susceptibility to COVID-19 infection; and 4) perceived barriers to preventing COVID-19 infection. The content validity of the questionnaire was examined by five experts. The Cronbach's alpha coefficients of parts 3 and 4 were 0.72 and 0.72, respectively.  Data was analyzed by descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentage, standard deviation, and multiple logistic regression.

        The results showed that the factors of workplace and working hours per week had significantly influenced the rate of COVID-19 infection among professional nurses. Professional nurses who worked in the internal medicine department had a 3.73 times higher likelihood of contracting COVID-19 compared to those working in the surgery department (OR = 3.73; 95% CI = 1.88–7.37; p = .001). Professional nurses who worked over 40 hours per week had a COVID-19 infection rate that was 3.73 times greater than those whose working hours per week were less than or equal to 40 hours per week (OR = 2.36, 95% CI = 1.21–4.59, p < .005)