Abstract:
Background: Injuries from sharps and needles among hospital workers are major risk factors for blood borne infections. Globally, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C and HIV infections accounted by sharp injury are 37%, 39% and 4.4% respectively among all the occupational infections affecting health care workers (HCW). This study aimed at assessing the injuries and associated factors that expose hospital workers to risks of contracting blood borne infections.
Methods: We conducted a Cross-sectional study between December 2012 and May 2013. We derived study sample from four hospitals in which we obtained study subjects by simple random sampling from hospital sections. The study included 258 health care workers which represented 86% of eligible hospital workers. Data was collected using self administered questionnaire and was analyzed using SPSS software. Chi square test and binary logistic regression for categorical variables was performed and alpha was set at 5% level.
Results: Of all participants, 27.9% had experienced at least one episode of work-related injury in twelve months prior to the study. Most of these injuries were needle pricks (72.2%) and cuts by sharps (23.6%) of which among all the injuries, 51.4% and 14.3% happened during use and after use of the item respectively. 0f all 72 study participants who experienced Work Related Injuries (WRI), majority (41.7%) suffered the injury due to unexpected movement from patient. Likelihood of injury experience decreased if a hospital worker was trained on health and safety (OR: 0.42, 95% CI: (0.19, 0.91) or hospital worker was provided with health and safety guidelines (OR: 0.52, 95% CI: (0.28, 0.97).
Conclusion: Work-related injuries especially needle-stick injuries were common among HCWs of the four hospitals we studied. Training HCW about health and safety, and provision of health and safety guidelines for HCWs will reduce the likelihood of exposure to WRI in HCWs. Small size of some of categories of participants might have resulted in large uncertainty intervals of their estimated association with an injury. The identified magnitude of WRIs suggests a need for trainings to enhance HCWs awareness and implementation of the standard precautions and procedures to health and safety.
Key words: Injury, Health, Workers, Iringa
