Compliance with World Health Organization's COVID‐19 guidelines among Iraqi health workers

• Published date: 01 December 2023
• Author: Burhan Hadi,Kadhim H. Jassem,Reheem M. Abadi,Mohamed A. Igrish,Ali F. A. Hussein,Ka Y. Lee
• Date: 01 December 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/wmh3.566

Received: 13 August 2022

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Revised: 30 November 2022

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Accepted: 27 January 2023

DOI: 10.1002/wmh3.566

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Compliance with World Health Organization's

COVID‐19 guidelines among Iraqi health

workers

Burhan Hadi

1

|Kadhim H. Jassem

1

|Reheem M. Abadi

2

|

Mohamed A. Igrish

2

|Ali F. A. Hussein

1

|Ka Y. Lee

3

1

Nursing Department, Al‐Mustaqbal

University College, Hillah, Babil, Iraq

2

Ministry of Health and Environment at

Babylon Health Directorate, Babil, Iraq

3

Swedish Winter Sports Research Centre,

Department of Health Sciences, Mid Sweden

University, Östersund, Sweden

Correspondence

Ka Y. Lee, Swedish Winter Sports Research

Centre, Department of Health Sciences, Mid

Sweden University, Östersund, Sweden.

Email: kyle.lee@miun.se

Abstract

During the COVID‐19 pandemic, the World Health

Organization (WHO) introduced guidelines with respect

to hygiene practices, quarantine policies, and medical

practices for health institutions to follow. Most studies

examining compliance with WHO guidelines have been

conducted at individual level but not at institutional level.

This study investigates the availability of resources of

health institutions in Iraq and their compliance with WHO

COVID‐19 guidelines. A total of 234 health workers,

including physicians, nurses and medical technicians,

were recruited in Babylon, Iraq. Self‐reported number of

health workers available in the health centre and the

levels of compliance with the WHO's guidelines were

assessed. Implementation of preventive measures for

infected persons, fogging procedures, and having a

crisis management team in the health centre were the

top three common practices as recommended by WHO.

There was a weak but significant positive relationship

between the number of health workers in the healthcare

centre and the levels of compliance with the WHO's

COVID‐19 guidelines (ρ= 0.243,p< 0.05),indicating

that manpower may determine the implementation of

these guidelines. There is a correlation between the

quantity of health workers and the levels of compliance

with the WHO's COVID‐19 guidelines, showing that it is

important to ensure sufficient human resources available

in the health centre to implement the standard practices.

In addition, more financial resources are needed to

World Med. & Health Policy. 2023;15:537–543. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/wmh3

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© 2023 The Authors. World Medical & Health Policy published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Policy Studies Organization.