Prevalence and Factors Associated with Needle Stick and/or Sharp Injury during Working among Medical First Responders

This cross-sectional survey was attempted to assess the prevalence and factors associated with needle stick and/or sharp injury (NSI) among medical first responders (MFRs) during working. Totally 344 MFRs working in the fifth public health region of Thailand were carried out. All voluntary MFRs who aged 18 years and over, male and female were interviewed using a structured questionnaire consisting of socio-demographic factors, working experience, 3-month history of NSI during working, and universal precaution (UP) practices. Data were analyzed by Pearson χ2 test at α = 0.05 Results revealed that the prevalence of NSI among studied MFRs was 39.5% per 3 months or 0.4 times/person/3 months (95% confidence interval = 0.27-0.53 times/person/3 months). After analysis of factors associated with prevalence of NSI, it was found that only the working experiences including duration (years) of working experience (p<0.001), and working frequency per month (p=0.032) were significantly associated with prevalence of NSI at α = 0.05 Therefore, the short-course training towards rescue skill and NSI prevention to increase their experiences should be provided and strengthened, as well as, the optimal work-load should be considered to reduce the risk for NSI among this group.