This cross-sectional retrospective study involved the collection of handwritten patients’ records and clinical notes of both major and minor surgeries at Shirati KMT Hospital, Tanzania between January 1 and June 9, 2019. The study was approved with an exempt status by the Touro University California Institutional Review Board (IRB) M-1391. The handwritten data, which did not contain patients’ names, was transcribed into an Excel sheet for further statistical analysis. A total of 423 patients’ demographic and clinical information was obtained. After patients with missing records were excluded from analysis, a total of 128 patients’ data was used to determine the relationship between SSI and each of the following predictors: demographic (age and gender) and pre- and intra-operative factors (antimicrobial prophylaxis, American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) scoring, operation types and length, wound class, and anesthesia types). SSI rate was defined as the percentage of patients with SSI that were exposed to a predictor. The data was further analyzed using 2x2 contingency tables, and the Chi-square test was used for determining the significance of the correlation between SSI and each predictor. Additionally, multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to determine SSI prediction based on antimicrobial prophylaxis, major and elective operations, and clean contaminated wound class. Statistical significance was defined as a p-value of less than 0.05.
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