{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,25]],"date-time":"2026-09-25T14:39:27Z","timestamp":1790347167124,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":41,"publisher":"AOSIS","issue":"0","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,31]],"date-time":"2025-07-31T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1753920000000},"content-version":"unspecified","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background: Surgical site infection (SSI) is a prevalent healthcare-associated infection worldwide, defined as any incisional infection occurring within 30 days post-operation or within 1 year in the presence of an implant. Healthcare-associated infections represent a significant threat to patient health and continue to pose a major global challenge.\n\nAim: This study aims to determine the prevalence of SSI and identify associated factors among patients in surgical wards who have undergone surgical procedures in Windhoek, Namibia.\n\nSetting: This study was conducted in two state hospitals in Windhoek, Namibia.\n\nMethods: This study employed a quantitative, hospital-based cross-sectional design, utilising a retrospective chart review of patients who underwent surgical procedures between March 2019 and February 2021.\n\nResults: The overall prevalence of SSI was 10.1% (95% confidence interval: 8.4% \u2013 11.8%). Hospitals 1 and 2 had a prevalence of 11.5% and 8.7%, respectively. Factors associated with SSIs were found to be age groups 31\u201360 years, male patients, postoperative hospital stays \u2265 5 days, emergency surgery, abdominal and lower extremity surgeries, operation referred from other hospitals, previous history of surgery, 1 h\u20132 h duration of surgery and deceased patients. Diabetes mellitus, HIV\/AIDS, cancer, malignancy and multiple comorbidities were also noted to increase the risk of SSIs.\n\nConclusion: The prevalence of SSI in this study remains high, and therefore, context-based interventions should focus on the factors identified to guide the effective management of patients.\n\nContribution: This study provides evidence to improve surgical site infections in Namibia.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.4102\/hsag.v30i0.2930","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,28]],"date-time":"2025-07-28T07:49:57Z","timestamp":1753688997000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.4102\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Prevalence and factors of surgical site infections in surgical wards, Windhoek, Namibia"],"prefix":"10.4102","volume":"30","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0001-5262-1533","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Anna N.","family":"Haifete","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/04qzfn040","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"University of KwaZulu-Natal"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6258-1603","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Petra","family":"Brysiewicz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/04qzfn040","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"University of KwaZulu-Natal"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"2580","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,31]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref0","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Alamrew, K., Tadesse, T.A., Abiye, A.A. & Shibeshi, W., 2019, \u2018Surgical antimicrobial prophylaxis and incidence of surgical site infections at Ethiopian tertiary-care teaching hospital\u2019, Infectious Diseases: Research and Treatment 12, 1178633719892267. 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