Knowledge of occupational exposure to HIV among healthcare workers in college campus clinics and tertiary hospitals

ABSTRACT

As the number of college students infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has increased significantly in China, the risk of occupational exposure to HIV among healthcare workers (HCW) in college campus clinics has also increased. Our study aimed to evaluate the awareness of HCWs in terms of preventing occupational HIV exposure in college campus clinics compared with HCWs in tertiary hospitals. This cross-sectional study was conducted in nine provinces in China from September to October 2019 (10 college campus clinics, 7 tertiary hospitals). The study’s response rate was recorded to be at 87.62% (184 of 210). The knowledge score of HIV among all HCWs was determined to be generally low (67.17 ± 11.17 points), and that of college campus clinics and tertiary hospitals showed no significant difference (66.36 ± 10.36 vs. 67.63 ± 11.61 points, P=0.463). Overall, HCWs in both college campus clinics and tertiary hospitals showed inadequate knowledge regarding occupational HIV exposure. Training for the prevention of occupational HIV exposure should be strengthened in both medical institutions.

KEYWORDS:

• HIV
• occupational exposure
• college campus clinics
• tertiary hospitals

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to managers and HCWs of the college campus clinics and tertiary hospitals above mentioned participating in this project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province (No.2018JJ6062).