Prevalence and Risk Factors of Occupational Health Hazards Among Health Care Workers of Northern Saudi Arabia: A Multicenter Study

Overview

Journal Int J Environ Res Public Health

Publisher MDPI

Specialties Environmental Health
Public Health

Date 2021 Nov 13

PMID 34770004

Citations 5

Authors

Ashokkumar Thirunavukkarasu

Khaloud Amash Hossin Alrawaili

Ahmad Homoud Al-Hazmi

Umar Farooq Dar

Bashayer ALruwaili

Ayesha Mallick

Farooq Ahmed Wani

Amnah Ibrahim E Alsirhani

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Health care workers (HCWs) working in different health care facilities are exposed to many hazards, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. This questionnaire-based cross-sectional study aimed to assess the prevalence, pattern, and risk factors of occupational health hazards faced by 438 randomly selected HCWs from northern Saudi Arabia. The HCWs are commonly exposed to needle stick injuries (34.5%) under the biological hazards category; and work-related stress (69.6%) under the non-biological hazards categories. The significant associated factors were work setting (ref: Primary Health Center: Adjusted OR (AOR) = 2.81, 95%CI = 1.21-4.59, = 0.017), smoking status (ref.: non-smoker: AOR = 1.73, 95%CI = 1.03-2.91, = 0.039), and mean sleeping duration per day (AOR = 1.22, 95%CI = 1.04-1.43, = 0.014) for biological, and smoking status (ref: non-smoker: AOR = 2.16, 95%CI = 1.09-3.29, = 0.028), and mean sleeping duration per day (AOR = 1.35, 95%CI = 1.07-1.70, = 0.013) for non-biological categories. This study revealed several risk factors and occupational health hazards that HCWs are exposed to during their work time. Periodic training and follow-up assessments regarding bio-safety measures for the HCWs should be implemented. Finally, future explorative studies are warranted on the feasibility of implementing rotation-based postings for the HCWs in different health care settings.

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