Abstract
Health care workers (HCWs) working in different health care facilities are exposed to many hazards, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. This questionnaire-based cross-sectional study aimed to assess the prevalence, pattern, and risk factors of occupational health hazards faced by 438 randomly selected HCWs from northern Saudi Arabia. The HCWs are commonly exposed to needle stick injuries (34.5%) under the biological hazards category; and work-related stress (69.6%) under the non-biological hazards categories. The significant associated factors were work setting (ref: Primary Health Center: Adjusted OR (AOR) = 2.81, 95%CI = 1.21–4.59, p = 0.017), smoking status (ref.: non-smoker: AOR = 1.73, 95%CI = 1.03–2.91, p = 0.039), and mean sleeping duration per day (AOR = 1.22, 95%CI = 1.04–1.43, p = 0.014) for biological, and smoking status (ref: non-smoker: AOR = 2.16, 95%CI = 1.09–3.29, p = 0.028), and mean sleeping duration per day (AOR = 1.35, 95%CI = 1.07–1.70, p = 0.013) for non-biological categories. This study revealed several risk factors and occupational health hazards that HCWs are exposed to during their work time. Periodic training and follow-up assessments regarding bio-safety measures for the HCWs should be implemented. Finally, future explorative studies are warranted on the feasibility of implementing rotation-based postings for the HCWs in different health care settings.
Highlights
A health care facility is a workplace that aims to give care to the patients in terms of diagnosis, treatment, and prevention activities [1]
This analytical cross-sectional study was executed from April 2021 to September 2021 among the health care workers (HCWs) working in different health care facilities in the northern border province of Saudi Arabia
This research was carried out among different HCWs working in different health care facilities in the northern border province of Saudi Arabia
Summary
A health care facility is a workplace that aims to give care to the patients in terms of diagnosis, treatment, and prevention activities [1]. Personnel working in any health care facility are considered as health care workers (HCWs) [2]. Health care personnel working in different health care facilities are exposed to the risk of a wide array of hazards at work, including infections due to sharps injuries, harmful exposures to radiation and dangerous drugs, injuries, physical violence, and mental stress [5,6,7,8]. Though biological hazards such as infections are
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