الفهرس 
INTRODUCTION
AIM OF THE STUDYOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
One of the most important disease management tools in hospitals is infectious disease surveillance and reporting system. It collects the reports of communicable diseases for registration on the surveillance system, and continues the incidents and control procedures and sends them to the relevant health authorities at the district level.
Health care providers play an important role in the control of communicable diseases, and their decisions on diagnosis, treatment, prevention and reporting are critical to public health.
Aims of the study:
The objectives of the study are to assess knowledge, attitude and practices of Assuit university health care providers regarding the reporting of communicable diseases, and to identify the determinants of knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) gap among the studied health care providers.
Methodology:
This study is a cross-sectional study and conducted on AUHS among health-care providers (physicians and head nurses) working in specialties related to infectious diseases with total calculated sample size 420.
The data was collected by using face to face interview from December 2017 to May 2018.
The questionnaire covering the following issues the personal data, the Knowledge, attitude and practice about the communicable disease surveillance system in AUHS, reasons of not reporting and suggestions to improve the health care providers’ compliance about the communicable diseases surveillance reporting.
Results:
Personal data of study participants:
Males represent 42.4% of the participants while females represent 57.6%. The mean age of the participants was 32 years old.
The majority of the participants were physicians; head nurses represent 17.4% of the sample. The mean of the participants’ years of practice was 8.35 years.
The study was conducted in 6 departments; the largest numbers of participants from children hospital followed by internal medicine; the lowest number of the participants was from chest department.
The participants’ knowledge of the communicable diseases’ Surveillance system:
The study revealed that 22.4% of the participants their level of knowledge is satisfactory.
The study discovered that 60% of the participants are not aware of the presence communicable disease surveillance system in AUHs. By asking them about the function of diseases surveillance, about a third of the participants were able to name at least one function of diseases surveillance and only 9.3% were able to mention the four functions.
By asking the participants about having the handbook of case definitions for notified diseases, 93.8% of the participants said they don’t have it.
There was a significant difference in knowledge in age, years of practice of the participants and the department that they work on, being more in those who aged over 30 years, staff members and in those whose experience exceeds ten years; regarding the departments, the Department of Tropical Medicine is considered the most satisfactory department in knowledge level. The Women Health Hospital is considered the lowest level of knowledge.
The participant’s attitude about the communicable diseases surveillance system:
The study revealed that 76.2% of the participants have a positive attitude about communicable diseases surveillance.
The vast majority (92.9%) of the participants agreed that reporting of communicable diseases is one of the responsibilities of the health care providers.
By asking about the importance of communicable diseases reporting 88.8% agreed that it is helpful to the safety of their practice and 87.1% agreed that it is important to improve the health of the community.
There is a significant difference in the attitude between males and females, Females have a more positive attitude than males. Regarding departments, clinical pathology department and tropical department have the most positive attitude; however the Women Health Hospital has the least positive attitude.
The participant’s Practice of communicable diseases surveillance:
The study revealed that 21% of the participants have an adequate level of practice.
When asking the physicians about diagnosing infectious diseases 93.6% of them have diagnosed infectious diseases. Regarding reporting 30% of the diagnosing participants have ever report infectious diseases.
The study discovered that 89.3% of the participants did not attend training courses on communicable diseases surveillance. The most adequate department in practice was clinical pathology department and the least adequate department was chest department.
Reasons for non- reporting:
The main reasons for non-reporting among those have never reported were: lack of knowledge about how or to whom to report or which diseases to report and time constraint.
The comparison between physicians and head nurses in the levels of knowledge, attitude and practice shows that the physicians have more satisfactory knowledge than head nurses although, head nurses have slightly more adequate practice than physicians. Regarding attitude, they are nearly equal.
Correlations between knowledge, attitude and practice:
The study shows that there is a significant weak positive correlation between knowledge and attitude and practice and attitude.
The study shows that there is a moderate positive correlation between knowledge and practice.
Suggestions of the participants to improve health care providers Compliance with communicable disease reporting
Providing continuous education through special lectures and workshops and joining of sanitarians to every department which communicates with communicable diseases are suggested by 78.1% and 71% of the participants respectively.
Therefore, the current study concluded that:
• More than half of the participants were not aware of the presence of communicable diseases surveillance system in AUHS and less than one-fifth of them were aware of the presence of communicable diseases surveillance unit in AUHS.
• Less than a quarter of the participants have a good knowledge of the surveillance of communicable diseases.
• The Department of Tropical Medicine is considered the most satisfactory department in knowledge level. The Women Health Hospital is considered the lowest level of knowledge.
• More than two-thirds of the participants have a positive attitude about communicable diseases surveillance.
• About one-fifth of the participants has an adequate level of practice.
• The physicians have more satisfactory knowledge than head nurses although; head nurses have slightly more adequate practice than physicians. Regarding attitude, they are nearly equal.