Association between skin injuries and the importance atributed to prevention by health professionals during the pandemic.

Abstract

To verify the association between the occurrence of skin lesions due to the use of products and/or personal protective equipment and the importance attributed to preventive care among health professionals working on the front lines of the struggle against the COVID-19 pandemic. Cross-sectional, analytical study, carried out between May and June 2020, with a convenience sample (n=398) of health workers from 10 professional categories. To verify the existence of an association between the occurrence of skin lesions and exposure variables, a Contingency Table was used to obtain the Prevalence Ratio and respective Confidence Intervals. 260 (65.3%) participants self-declared the development of skin lesions, predominantly nurses (53.8%), women (54.0%), from public institutions (52.8%), characterized by pressure injuries (37.3%), contact/allergic dermatitis (25.8%), or both lesions simultaneously (16.5%). More than half of professionals (53.5%) used preventive products, mainly moisturizers (51.0%). There was probability of an association between professionals who attributed less importance to the predictor "Protocol for proper product PPE and products" and the risk of skin injuries.