Determining compliance with the COVID-19 daily symptom monitoring tool used to identify suspected COVID-19 workers of the military health support formation employees of the South African national defence force

Abstract

Introduction: the COVID-19 pandemic had prompted governments in many countries to enact laws and policies to combat the spread of COVID-19 at work. The DEL required every worker to be screened when they arrived at work. Screening methods included self-reporting symptoms using a symptom monitoring tool. This study aimed to determine compliance with the symptom monitoring tool by assessing the knowledge, attitude, and practice of the MHSF employees. Methods: a cross-sectional questionnaire was administered to the employees. Information related to demographic, COVID-19 exposure, knowledge of COVID-19 and the symptom monitoring tool, attitude towards the symptom monitoring tool and practices towards COVID-19 and the symptom monitoring tool was collected. Results: a total of 90 participants participated in the study. The majority (N=45;50%) of respondents were aged between 30 and 39 years old, with more female (N=50) than male (N=40) participants. The majority (N=51;56.7%) only had grade 12 as the highest level of education. There were 25% (N=10) of males and 20% (N=10) of females who contracted COVID-19. The relationship between the COVID-19 positive cases and the symptom monitoring tool identifying symptoms had a strong negative correlation (-0.932). Respondent's knowledge of COVID-19 and the symptom monitoring tool was moderate (72.4%), with the attitude to the symptom monitoring tool being moderate (63.3%) as well. However, the practices of the COVID-19 guidelines and the symptom monitoring tool were good (93.3%). Conclusion: the employees of the MHSF complied with the completion of the daily symptom monitoring tool. There was decent knowledge of COVID-19 and the symptom monitoring tool, with a moderate attitude and good practices towards COVID-19 and completing the tool. The tool was able to identify suspected COVID-19 cases, which possibly reduced the spread of the virus in the workplace. © Stellan Abraham John et al.