Trend Analysis and Factors Associated with Biological Injuries Among Health Care Workers in Southern Italy

Overview

Journal Med Lav

Specialty Occupational Medicine

Date 2018 Sep 1

PMID 30168503

Citations 4

Authors

Vincenza Cofini

Alberto Capodacqua

Santina Calisse

Italia Galassi

Lora Cipollone

Stefano Necozione

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Biological injuries are the most common and serious among health care workers.

Objectives: This study aims to estimate the injuries' incidence, job distribution and temporal trend in a hospital in Southern Italy.

Methods: Data on accidents, collected from January 2010 to December 2016, were analyzed. Poisson distribution was used to calculate incidence rates and respective 95% confidence intervals. Trends were analyzed using the Joinpoint regression model. A multiple logistic regression model was used to identify factors associated with injuries.

Results: Three hundred and thirty-five injuries were reported from 2010 to 2016, occurring mainly in the morning (54%) and frequently caused by needlestick (70%). We observed a significant decline in the incidence rates of the total amount of injuries (ACP=-11.3; 95% CI: -16.3 - -5.9), for nurses (ACP=-15.7; 95% CI: -24.3 - -6.2) and for health and social care assistants (ACP=-13.2; 95% CI: -23.1 - -2.0). Among male physicians the risk of biological accident was higher than female physicians (OR=3.67; 95% CI:1.9-7.1), while among male nurses the risk was lower than among female nurses (OR=0.31; 95% CI: 0.17-0.59). For the nursing category, "afternoon" and "night" represented risk factors with OR=2.19 (95% CI: 1.2-3.7) and OR=8.8 (95% CI: 3.4-22.8) respectively. For physicians, surgical intervention was a risk factor (OR=7.71; 95% CI: 3.2-18.4).

Conclusions: Our findings confirm the need for continuous monitoring and improved control of work-related exposures, both for health and the associated costs.

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