Abstract:
Back-ground: Occupational exposure to biological hazards is a serious concern for
health care workers, and presents a major risk for the transmission of infections such
as HIV and hepatitis viruses.
Objective: To assess the exposure to biological hazards and associated factors among
health care workers in Hospitals of west Shoa Zone, central Ethiopia.
Methods: A cross-sectional study, involving 204 health care workers, was conducted
in west Shoa zone from October 9/10/2013-30/10/2013.Purposive sampling was used
for qualitative study but for the quantitative study all study populations were included.
A pre-tested, self-administered structured questionnaire was used for quantitative data
collection. Odds ratio with 95% confidence interval and binary logistic regression
analysis were used to measure the degree of association between the dependent
variable and the explanatory variables.
Result: About 31.8% and 65.7% of respondents sustained needle stick injuries and
exposed to body fluids respectively within the last one year. The rate of needle stick
injuries was also estimated at 1.95 injuries/ health care workers/year. Factors
associated with occurrence of injuries were being a nurse (AOR=3.03, 95%CI=2.30,
10.4), attending many patients (AOR=2.07, 95%CI=1.35, 3.34), inconsistent use of
personal protective equipments (AOR=2.23, 95%CI =1.25, 5.29) and recapping of
used needles (AOR=2.34, 95%CI=1.78, 3.94) and not being trained on infection
prevention(AOR=1.98,95%CI=1.46,4.77).Exposure to body fluids was also associated
with being female(AOR=3.94,95%CI=2.09,7.40),age <30 years being (AOR=1.87,
95%CI=1.02,3.92),nurse(AOR=3.45,95%CI=1.22,9.8),not being trained on infection
prevention(AOR=4.39,95%CI=1.98,9.70) and inconsistent use of personal protective
equipments(AOR=2.79,95%CI=1.35,13.04).
Conclusion: Generally, the study showed that exposure to biological hazards during
patient care among health care workers was high in the study area. So the management
and the HCWs should take measure to minimize these problems, by giving training on
infection prevention, by strengthening infection prevention committee, regular
surveillance, availing adequate personal protective equipment, focus on immunization.
