Prevalence of Needlestick Injuries Among Home Health Care Workers

Details

• Personal Author:
  Garg, Arun ; Hegmann KT ; Kapellush J ; Thiese MS ; Wendelboe AM
• Description:
  Needlestick injuries are a significant problem for healthcare providers. While the majority of research on needlestick injuries has been completed among healthcare workers in the hospital setting, little has been reported in non-hospital healthcare workers. A cross-sectional study was conducted, which analyzed needlestick and sharps injuries among home health care (HHC) workers (n = 883) from 24 HHC agencies in Utah, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Canada. Workers were largely female (92.3%) with a mean age of 43.5+/-11.3 years and mean experience in HHC of 8.3+/-6.7 years. 431 (48.8%) were aides and 306 (34.7%) were nurses. The participation rate averaged >95%. The one year prevalence rate of needlestick injuries for was 1.2% among HHC aides and 7.6% among HHC nurses. Logistic regression analyses were performed. Variables included age, smoking status, seatbelt use, length of career in HHC, personal and work related psycho-social factors and smoking status. Stratified analyses showed that for aides increasing age was protective [Odds Ratio (OR) = 0.16, (95% Confidence Interval 0.03, 0.98)] yet total time working for a HHC agency was trending toward significance (OR = 5.59, p = 0.051) suggesting that aides who have worked in the HHC field for most of their career may be at increased risk for needlestick injuries. Analysis in nurses did not show similar trends. In aides these findings contradicted other published research indicating that newer employees had an increased risk for needlestick injuries yet paralleled reports that young age was a risk factor. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Demography Epidemiology Health Care Facilities Workforce And Services Health Personnel Needlestick Injuries Occupational Health Safety Women
• Keywords:
  Demographic-characteristics Health-care-personnel Injuries Medical-equipment Medical-personnel Needlestick-injuries Nurses Statistical-analysis
• ISSN:
  0002-9262
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Abstract or Summary
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 5 ; OSHA Region 8 ; Utah ; Wisconsin
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  159
• Issue:
  11
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20037569
• Citation:
  Am J Epidemiol 2004 Jun; 159(11)(Suppl):S78
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2004
• Performing Organization:
  University of Utah
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  American Journal of Epidemiology
• Supplement:
  Suppl
• End Date:
  20280630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:e94a7d473a377fbbad1c4a892e62107651905606f36eab5ffff8361b8a0ba8a1e54cf4495940c232ccc99a9e38f5e6ab19c68d3a56c1108376910b858e82ea1d
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/188642/cdc_188642_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 169.05 KB ]