Trend analysis and factors associated with biological injuries among health care workers in Southern Italy

Main Article Content

Vincenza Cofini
Alberto Capodacqua
Santina Calisse
Italia Galassi
Lora Cipollone
Stefano Necozione

Keywords

Biological risk injuries, trend analysis, injuries prevention\, Incidenti a rischio biologico, trend analisi, prevenzione incidenti

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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