Needlestick and Sharps Injuries among Healthcare Workers at hospitals in Neyshabur

Exposures to contaminated needlesticks and sharp devices are an important occupational hazard for morbidity and mortality from infections with blood-borne pathogens among HealthCare Workers (HCWs). The objective of this study was to evaluation the prevalence of NeedleStick and Sharps Injuries (NSSIs) and associated factors among Neyshabur’ HCWs. A cross-sectional study of 384 HCWs was undertaken in Neyshabur hospitals, a city in north-east of Iran. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to study the occurrence and risk factors of NSSIs that were happened from March 21, 2011 to Sep 22, 2011. The study population selected randomly from Neyshabur hospitals’ HCWs. Chi-square test and multivariate logistic regression model were conducted to determine the association between risk factors and occurrence of NSSIs. More than 32% of HCWs reported having experienced at least one NSSI in the studied duration, 54.8% reported having sustained 1 injury and 45.2% reported more than 1 injury. Most prevalence (39.7%) of NSSIs was observed in the nurses. The syringe needles were responsible for most of injuries (35.71%). Multivariate Logistic Regression model showed that age (OR=0.551, 95%CI=0.325, 0.934) and shift number per month (OR=2.404, 95%CI=1.389, 4.160) are significantly associated with occurrence of NSSIs (P<0.05). In total, the findings of this study indicate a slightly high prevalence of NSSIs among HCWs at hospitals in Neyshabur, so it is an important public health problem in these hospitals. Also, the most important risk factors associated to occurrence of NSSIs are age of HCWs and shift number (per month).