Association of overtime work and obesity with needle stick and sharp injuries in medical practice

Abstract

BACKGROUND Needle stick and sharps injuries (NSIs) may cause infections among medicalpersonnel. Obesity and overtime work among medical personnel increase theincidence of work injuries.AIMTo investigate whether overtime work and obesity increase the risk of NSIs.METHODS This cross-sectional study used the data of 847 hospital personnel, including 104doctors, 613 nurses, 67 medical laboratory scientists, 54 specialist technicians, andnine surgical assistants. Of them, 29 participants notified the hospital of having atleast one NSI in 2017. The data collected included age, overtime work, body massindex, medical specialty such as doctor or nurse, and professional grade such asattending physician or resident. The χ2 and Fisher’s exact tests were used tocompare categorical variables. Multiple logistic regression analysis and the Sobeltest were used to assess the risk of NSIs.RESULTS Overtime work, body weight, and medical specialty were significantly associatedwith NSIs (P < 0.05). After adjustment for risk factors, heavy overtime work wasan independent risk factor for NSIs, and healthy body weight and nursingspecialty were independent protective factors against NSIs. After adjustment forrisk factors, medical personnel with healthy body weight has half as many NSIs asthose with unhealthy body weight; the proportion of NSIs in doctors with healthybody weight was 0.2 times that in doctors with unhealthy body weight; theproportion of injuries among residents was 17.3 times higher than that amongattending physicians; the proportion of injuries among junior nurses was 3.9 timeshigher than that among experienced nurses; the proportion of injuries amongnurses with heavy overtime work was 6.6 times higher than that among nurseswith mild overtime work; and the proportion of injuries among residents was 19.5times higher than that among junior nurses. Heavy overtime work mediated theassociation of medical specialty with NSIs.CONCLUSION In addition to promoting the use of safety needles and providing infection controleducation, managers should review overtime schedules, and medical personnelshould be encouraged to maintain a healthy weight.