Tawiah Philip Apraku, Appiah-Brempong Emmanuel, Okyere Paul, Ashinyo Mary Eyram
Department of Occupational, Environmental Health and Safety, School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana.
Department of Pharmacognosy and Herbal Medicine, School of Pharmacy, University of Health and Allied Sciences, Ho, Ghana.
SAGE Open Med. 2024 Feb 29;12:20503121241234473. doi: 10.1177/20503121241234473. eCollection 2024.
Exposure to splash of body fluids is one of the common ways of transmitting blood-borne infections from patients to healthcare practitioners. Globally, there is a paucity of evidence on exposure to splash of body fluids among hospital housekeepers. This study, therefore, investigated splash of body fluid and its predisposing factors among healthcare support staff in the Greater Accra region, Ghana.
An analytic cross-sectional survey was conducted among support staff in 10 major hospitals between 30 January and 31 May 2023. A multi-stage sampling procedure was the overarching technique employed, and study participants were recruited through simple random and probability proportional-to-size sampling techniques. The data analyses were conducted using STATA 15 software. The preliminary association between exposure to splash of body fluids and predisposing factors was established through Chi-square, Fisher's exact, and Mann-Whitney tests. Log-binomial regression analyses were employed to validate the factors related to splash of body fluids at a significance level of -value < 0.05.
The investigation was conducted among 149 healthcare support staff. The exposure to splash of body fluids over the past 1 year was 53.7% (95% CI: 45.3%-61.9%). The types of body fluids that were mostly encountered through these splash exposures were amniotic fluids (36.3%) and urine (23.8%). Several factors were found to be significantly associated with splash of body fluids, namely: employed as a healthcare assistant [APR = 1.61 (1.16, 2.22)], holding a supervisory position [APR = 0.24 (0.11, 0.51)], having a system in place for reporting body fluid splashes [APR = 0.61 (0.44, 0.85)], male healthcare support staff [APR = 0.62 (0.41, 0.93)], and adherence to standard precautions most of the time [APR = 1.66 (1.11, 2.48)].
Healthcare support staff were highly exposed to splash of body fluids. Gender, supervisory role, category of worker, reporting systems, and adherence to standard precautions were associated with exposure to splash of body fluids. Facility managers are advised to enhance the efficiency of reporting systems.
接触体液飞溅是患者将血源性感染传播给医护人员的常见途径之一。在全球范围内，关于医院勤杂工接触体液飞溅的证据很少。因此，本研究调查了加纳大阿克拉地区医护辅助人员中体液飞溅情况及其相关因素。
于2023年1月30日至5月31日期间，对10家主要医院的辅助人员进行了一项分析性横断面调查。采用多阶段抽样程序作为总体技术，并通过简单随机抽样和按比例大小概率抽样技术招募研究参与者。使用STATA 15软件进行数据分析。通过卡方检验、费舍尔精确检验和曼-惠特尼检验确定体液飞溅暴露与相关因素之间的初步关联。采用对数二项回归分析在显著性水平p值<0.05时验证与体液飞溅相关的因素。
对149名医护辅助人员进行了调查。过去1年中体液飞溅暴露率为53.7%（95%置信区间：45.3%-61.9%）。通过这些飞溅暴露最常遇到的体液类型是羊水（36.3%）和尿液（23.8%）。发现几个因素与体液飞溅显著相关，即：受雇为医护助理[调整后风险比（APR）=1.61（1.16，2.22）]、担任监督职位[APR=0.24（0.11，0.51）]、有体液飞溅报告系统[APR=0.61（0.44，0.85）]、男性医护辅助人员[APR=0.62（0.41，0.93）]以及大部分时间遵守标准预防措施[APR=1.66（1.11，2.48）]。
医护辅助人员体液飞溅暴露率很高。性别、监督角色、工作人员类别、报告系统以及遵守标准预防措施与体液飞溅暴露有关。建议医疗机构管理者提高报告系统的效率。
