Health Hazards among Health Care Workers and Associated Factors in Public Hospitals, Sana'a-Yemen

Abstract

Background: Healthcare workers (HCWs) in Yemen are exposed to a myriad of occupational health hazards, including biological, physical, ergonomic, chemical and psychosocial hazards. HCWs operate in an environment that is considered to be one of the most hazardous occupational settings

Objective: to assess the prevalence of occupational health hazards among health care workers and associated risk factors in public hospitals in Sana'a city Yemen.

Method: descriptive cross-sectional design was utilized, out of 5443 totals of HCWs 396 were selected by multistage sampling technique was carried out in the public hospitals in Sana'a city Yemen. Self-administrated questionnaire used for data collection from the 1st November to the 5th December 2020. Pearson Chi- Square test was used to assess overall knowledge and demographic characteristics. Multiple linear regressions analysis was used to determine the predictors of knowledge, total risk prevalence, and total safety practice.

Results: More the half (60.6%) of HCWs aged between 20-30 years, (50.8%) were males, (56.3%) married, and (45.5%) had a diploma qualification, while (65.2%) of HCWs had less than 6 years' experience. The result showed that the highest prevalence of occupational hazards was (99%), (ergonomic hazards (93.4%), biological hazards (87.6%), psychosocial (86.65%), physical hazards (83.3%), and chemical hazards (73.5%). HCWs had moderate knowledge about occupational hazards and fair safety practice. there were statistically significant association between the overall of knowledge among HCWs toward occupational hazard and age (p-value = 0.031), sex, (p-value = 0.057), and experiences (p-value = 0.057). On the other hand, there was statistically significant association between the safety practice with age, experience and professional categories (p-value= 0.000, 0.025,0.010 respectively).

Conclusion and recommendations: The study showed highest prevalence of occupational hazards, and healthcare workers had moderate knowledge regarding occupational hazards. Regarding to the prevalence of biological hazards exposure to sharp related injury, most prevalence of physical hazards was slip/trip/and fall. Ergonomic hazards had back or neck pain during work. Chemical hazards were allergic to medical gloves powder. On psychosocial hazards was suffered from verbal and physical harassment. The study concluded by raising awareness among HCWs by conducting training courses to prevent occupational hazards.