Department of Occupational and Environmental Health & Safety, School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ashanti, Ghana
Department of Pharmacognosy and Herbal Medicine, School of Pharmacy, University of Health and Allied Sciences, Ho, Volta Region, Ghana.
BMJ Open. 2022 Oct 25;12(10):e064499. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2022-064499.
The strict implementation of occupational health and safety policy curbs exposure to occupational hazards. However, empirical evidence is lacking in the Ghanaian context. This review primarily aimed to explore exposure to occupational hazards among healthcare providers and ancillary staff in Ghana.
A scoping review was conducted based on Arksey and O'Malley's methodological framework and Levac 's methodological enhancement.
Searches were conducted of the PubMed, MEDLINE, CINAHL, Embase, PsycINFO and Scopus databases, as well as Google Scholar and websites of tertiary institutions in Ghana, for publications from 1 January 2010 to 30 November 2021.
Quantitative studies that were published in the English language and focused on occupational exposure to biological and/or non-biological hazards among healthcare professionals in Ghana were included.
Two independent reviewers extracted the data based on the type of occupational exposure and descriptive characteristics of the studies. The data are presented in tables and graphs. A narrative summary of review findings was prepared based on the review research questions.
Our systematic search strategy retrieved 507 publications; however, only 43 met the inclusion criteria. A little over one-quarter were unpublished theses/dissertations. The included studies were related to biological, psychosocial, ergonomic and other non-biological hazards. 55.8% of the studies were related to exposure to biological hazards and related preventive measures. In general, health workers were reported to use and comply with control and preventive measures; however, knowledge of control and preventive measures was suboptimal.
Work is needed to address the issue of occupational health hazard exposure in Ghana's health system. More research is needed to understand the extent of these exposures and their effects on the health system.
严格执行职业健康和安全政策可以遏制职业危害的暴露。然而，在加纳的背景下，实证证据不足。本综述主要旨在探讨加纳医疗保健提供者和辅助人员接触职业危害的情况。
根据 Arksey 和 O'Malley 的方法论框架和 Levac 的方法论增强，进行了范围综述。
对 PubMed、MEDLINE、CINAHL、Embase、PsycINFO 和 Scopus 数据库以及 Google Scholar 和加纳三所机构的网站进行了搜索，以查找 2010 年 1 月 1 日至 2021 年 11 月 30 日发表的文献。
纳入了发表在英语杂志上的定量研究，重点关注加纳医疗保健专业人员接触生物和/或非生物危害的职业暴露。
两名独立的综述员根据职业暴露的类型和研究的描述特征提取数据。数据以表格和图表形式呈现。根据综述研究问题，准备了综述结果的叙述性总结。
我们的系统搜索策略检索到 507 篇文献，但只有 43 篇符合纳入标准。略超过四分之一的研究是未发表的论文/学位论文。纳入的研究与生物、心理社会、人体工程学和其他非生物危害有关。55.8%的研究与接触生物危害及其相关预防措施有关。一般来说，卫生工作者被报告使用和遵守控制和预防措施；然而，对控制和预防措施的认识并不理想。
需要努力解决加纳卫生系统中职业健康危害暴露的问题。需要更多的研究来了解这些暴露的程度及其对卫生系统的影响。
