Abstract:
Background An occupational injury is any personal injury, disease, or death resulting from an occupational accident. Occupational injuries are work-related injuries and accidents and represent a major occupational health hazard in most countries due to multiple factors. Occupational injury among healthcare professionals is a very common occurrence in the medical industry as the workplace especially hospitals exposes them to injuries because of the presence of different types of occupational hazards but such information is limited in this study area. Therefore, this study is aimed to assess the prevalence of occupational injuries and associated factors among healthcare professionals in Bench Sheko Zone, Southwest Ethiopia.
Method An institutional-based cross-sectional study design was conducted in the Bench Sheko Zone, Southwest Ethiopia from March to April 2023. A total of 310 healthcare professionals were involved in the study. The collected data were entered into Epi Data Manager Version 4.6.0.6 and exported into SPSS version 22 software for analysis. Data on demographic characteristics, types of injuries, and frequency of risk factors were described with frequencies and percentages. Binary logistic regression analysis was used to identify the factors associated with occupational injuries and also multivariable logistic regression was used to identify the predictors of occupational injuries. The significance of associations was declared by using a 95% CI and a p-value of <0.05.
Result Prevalence of occupational injury among healthcare professionals in public health facilities was 41.3%. Moving heavy objects including patients [AOR: 2.11 95% CI (1.07-4.13)], improper disposal of sharps [AOR: 10.28 95% CI (5.46-19.35)], inadequate personal protective equipment [AOR: 3.63 95% CI (1.60-8.21)] and inadequate number of healthcare professionals [AOR: 2.29: 95% CI (1.13-4.60)] were factors significantly associated with occupational injuries in public health facilities.
Conclusion The prevalence of occupational injuries is high among healthcare professionals in Bench Sheko Zone Southwest Ethiopia. To protect healthcare professionals from occupational injuries in
