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Global Health Econ Sustain

ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE
Assessment of clinician’s knowledge and

attitude toward health extension program in
Ethiopia: An exploratory factor analysis

Merhawi Gebremedhin Tekle *, Esie Gebrewahd Gebre , Girmay
2
1
4
3,4
4
Medhin , Alula M. Teklu , Daniel Tadesse , Genet Gebrehiwot , Sentayehu
5
Tsegaye , Eskinder Wolka , Gebrehiwot Gebretsadik , Ciara DeGraff , and
6
9
8
7
Mihajlo Jakovljevic 10,11,12
1 School of Public Health, Haramaya University, Harar, Ethiopia
2 School of Geography and Environmental Studies, Haramaya University, Harar, Ethiopia
3 Aklilu Lemma Institute of Pathobiology, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
4 MERQ Consultancy PLC, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
5 Department of Gender and Development Studies, Haramaya University, Harar, Ethiopia
6 Federal Ministry of Health, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
7 International Institute for Primary Health Care-Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
8 Department of Biomedical Sciences, College of Health Sciences and Comprehensive Specialized
Hospital, Aksum University, Axum, Ethiopia
9 Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Colgate University, New York, United States
10 Institute of Advanced Manufacturing Technologies, Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic
University, St. Petersburg, Russia
11 Institute of Comparative Economic Studies, Hosei University, Tokyo, Japan
*Corresponding author: 12 Department of Global Health Economics and Policy, University of Kragujevac, Serbia
Merhawi Gebremedhin
(meriget12@gmail.com)
Citation: Tekle, M.G., Gebre, E.G.,
Medhin, G., Teklu, A.M., Tadesse, D, Abstract
Gebrehiwot, G., et al. (2023).
Assessment of clinician’s
knowledge and attitude toward Health extension workers (HEWs) are the primary implementers of the health
health extension program in extension program (HEP) – a government-led community-based health-care
Ethiopia: An exploratory factor program, but clinicians are anticipated to play a critical part in providing extensive
analysis. Global Health Econ support, thus, this study aimed to assess clinicians’ knowledge and perceptions of
Sustain, 1(1): 0887.
https://doi.org/10.36922/ghes.0887 HEP, a cross-sectional study was conducted with 1239 clinicians. A set of 54-item
questions was created based on HEP guidelines and relevant literature. Exploratory
Received: May 1, 2023
factor analysis (EFA) identified latent variables with Eigenvalues matrix >1. Cluster
Accepted: July 10, 2023 variables were derived through orthogonal varimax factor rotation, and internal
Published Online: July 25, 2023 reliability was evaluated using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. A composite score was
generated for each constructed factor, and the associations between variables were
Copyright: © 2023 Author(s).
This is an Open Access article determined using a one-way analysis of variance. Multiple linear regression analysis
distributed under the terms of the was conducted to eliminate confounders, with statistical significance set at P < 0.05.
Creative Commons Attribution EFA provides three factors explaining 91% of the total variance and labeled as
License, permitting distribution,
and reproduction in any medium, “clinician-perceived attitude towards the skill of HEWs” (F1), “clinician knowledge on
provided the original work is HEP activities” (F2), and “clinician-perceived attitude towards the impact of HEP” (F3).
properly cited. Internal reliability for the 54 items was 0.96, and it was 0.93, 0.90, and 0.89 for F1, F2,
Publisher’s Note: AccScience and F3, respectively. 75.5% and 76.2% of clinicians had favorable attitudes toward
Publishing remains neutral with F1 and F3, respectively, and 70.2% had good knowledge of F2. F1 was positively
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional correlated with participation in HEP review meetings, home visits, HEP outreach, and
affiliations. willingness to work in HEP but negatively correlated with degree holders. F2 was

Volume 1 Issue 1 (2023) 1 https://doi.org/10.36922/ghes.0887