Compliance of Malaysian healthcare workers towards tuberculosis prevention programmes in workplace: An exploratory sequential mixed method study protocol

INTRODUCTION: The World Health Organization (WHO) stated that the incidence of tuberculosis among healthcare workers is increasing yearly and exceeds the incidence of tuberculosis in the community in almost all the countries that report to the WHO. The problem is greater in countries with high burden of tuberculosis disease in the community. The cause of this problem may be contributed by the attitudes of the healthcare workers themselves, such as non-compliance of the procedures at their work tasks meant to prevent them from contracting the disease. Therefore, this study aims to assess the perceptions and the behaviours of healthcare workers in relation to compliance towards prevention activities on tuberculosis at their workplace.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: We plan to conduct a two-phase exploratory sequential mixed method study to determine the factors affecting compliance of Malaysian healthcare workers towards tuberculosis prevention programmes in their workplace based on the guidelines of the Ministry of Health, Malaysia. Phase one is a qualitative study with a focus group discussion and questionnaire development and phase two is a quantitative study where data will be collected among healthcare workers in government clinics and hospitals in Selangor. The data from phase one will be analysed using Atlas.Ti software for thematic analysis and data from phase two will be analysed using SEM AMOS software for structural equation modelling.