Magnitude of workplace sexual harassment among female healthcare workers and its associated factors at saint Paul’s hospital millennium medical college: a cross -sectional study

Abstract

<p><strong>Background: </strong>Sexual harassment against healthcare workers is a major workplace problem causing adverse effects. This study aimed to assess the magnitude of this problem, and its characteristics and associated factors among female health care workers at Saint Paul’s hospital millennium medical college, Addis Ababa.</p> <p><strong>Method: </strong>A cross-sectional study with quantitative method was carried out on 360 female health care workers at Saint Paul’s hospital millennium medical college using a self-administered questionnaire to collect the data concerning the exposure and characteristics of harassment situations. Stratified random sampling was used and a representative random&nbsp; &nbsp;sample of health care workers &nbsp;&nbsp;were recruited using proportional allocation technique from all departments.</p> <p><strong>Results: </strong>Overall 121 (33.6 %) participants reported they were sexually harassed at some point over the past one year. Among these, 95 % occurred while working at Saint Paul’s hospital millennium medical college while the rest occurred at affiliate hospitals during rotation. Respondents whose age is less than 30 were four times more likely to be affected than those age above 30 (adjusted OR= 4.63, 95%CI 1.96, 10.92). Physicians were 3 times (adjusted OR=2.84, 95 % CI 1.23, 6.53) more likely to face work place harassment than other medical staffs. Participants having night shift were two times more likely to face sexual harassment (adjusted OR=<strong> </strong>2.43, 95 % CI 1.14, 5.18). 95.9 % of the harassed respondents didn’t report the incident and unfortunately the majority of the participants 96.4% reported that they did not have any type of training about how to deal with sexual harassment.</p> <strong>Conclusion: </strong>The reported magnitude of sexual harassment over a year is high. Age less than 30, being a physician and having night shift were found to be a contributing factor in this study. Lack of appropriate responses to the harassment situation was revealed among the majority of the harassed health care workers. The institution should raise awareness among the employees of their rights, enable them to lodge complaints appropriately