Knowledge of and factors associated with stethoscope disinfection practice among physicians in Dammam, Saudi Arabia

Background: The health care system employs various medical devices and procedures to treat patients and help them to recover. Infections can be associated with stethoscopes. Objective: To determine the stethoscope disinfection compliance and factors associated with disinfection, amongst National Guard Health Affairs physicians in Dammam, Saudi Arabia. Methods: A cross sectional study was performed at Imam Abdurrahman Al-Faisal Hospital over a period of 3 months from October to December 2018. We assessed compliance regarding stethoscope disinfection practice using self-administered validated structured questionnaires. Data were analyzed by IBM© SPSS© Statistics version 24. Chi-square test was performed to find the association between the variables; a p-value of ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: The study results revealed that the majority of physicians, 89 (95.7%), agreed that stethoscopes often transmit infectious agents. Most of them, 88 (94.6%), agreed that stethoscopes needed to be disinfected. A relatively large majority, 86 (92.5%), of respondents stated they cleaned their stethoscopes using a suitable method. There was a significant difference among the respondents with regard to attending a course or symposium concerning stethoscope disinfection (p=0.001). Conclusion: The study concluded that stethoscopes can be regarded as important source for the spread of healthcare-associated infections and need to be disinfected after every use. The results also revealed that most of the respondents did not attend courses or symposiums on disinfection practices. Providing seminars and symposium along with additional training and education activities making easy availability of disinfectants were effective methods to improve stethoscope disinfection compliance among health workers.