Factors Associated with Needle Stick and Sharp Injuries Among Healthcare Workers in North East Ethiopia

Abstract

Background

Percutaneous exposure to blood and body fluids through contaminated needle sticks and sharps are serious occupational hazards for morbidity and mortality from infections from blood-borne pathogens among healthcare workers. However, limited studies have been conducted to identify factors associated with needle stick and sharp injuries among healthcare workers in the study area. Therefore, this study aimed at identifying factors associated with needle stick and sharp injuries among healthcare workers.

Methods

Institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted among healthcare workers at health facilities in Dessie from January to March 2018. A simple random sampling technique was used to recruit 362 healthcare workers. Data were collected using a structured self-administered questionnaire. The association between dependent and independent variables was checked using binary logistic regression and p-value ≤0.05 was used as a cut-off point for significance.

Results

The entire work time and one-year prevalence of needle stick and sharp injury among healthcare workers were 60.2% and 40.1%, respectively. Working in private hospital (AOR = 9.619, 95% CI: 2.476, 27.373), working in private clinic (AOR = 3.308, 95% CI: 1.038, 8.506), less work experience (AOR = 2.762, 95% CI: 1.381, 4.521), higher workload (AOR = 3.794, 95% CI: 2.268, 6.346) and all-time availability of sharp storage and disposal containers (AOR = 0.435, 95% CI: 0.215, 0.879) were significant predictors of needle stick and sharp injuries.

Conclusion

Prevalence of needle stick and sharp injury was high. Working in private health institutions, less work experience, higher workload and all-time availability of sharp storage and disposal containers were significant predictors of needle stick and sharp injuries. Therefore, efforts have to be made to reduce the workload of healthcare workers and to available sharp storage and disposal containers all the time in the workplaces.

Keywords:

• associated factors
• Ethiopia
• healthcare workers
• needle stick and sharp injuries

Acknowledgments

I am grateful to Wollo University, Dessie city health staffs and study participants for their valuable contribution during the study.

Data Sharing Statement

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Ethics Approval and Informed Consent

The study was conducted following the Declaration of Helsinki. Ethical clearance was obtained from the Institutional Review board of the College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Wollo University. Permission letter to conduct the study was obtained from the Dessie city administration health office and respective health institutions. Written informed consent was obtained from healthcare workers after they were informed about the objectives and procedures of the study. Their rights to refuse participation any time they want were assured. For this purpose, a one-page consent letter was attached as a cover page of each questionnaire stating the general objective of the study and issues of confidentiality that was discussed by the data collectors before proceeding to the data collection.

Author Contributions

The author made substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, analysis and interpretation of data, took part in drafting the article and revising it critically for important intellectual content, agreed to submit to the current journal, gave final approval of the version to be published and agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest for this work.

Additional information

Funding

There is no funding to report.