Health effects among COVID-19 frontline health care professionals using level III personal protective equipment: A hospital-based descriptive study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3126/ajms.v13i2.40795Keywords:
Personal protective equipment, Health care professionals, COVID-19Abstract
Background: Global outbreak of deadly Corona virus disease has forced health care professionals of various disciplines in Hospital and community setting to use personal protective equipment (PPE) which consists of completely encapsulated suit, led the frontline health care professionals to face not only the physical discomfort but also other health consequences.
Aims and Objectives: This study is conducted to assess the physical, physiological, and psychological health consequences faced by health care workers using Level III PPE when attending COVID-19 patients.
Materials and Methods: This is a cross-sectional study conducted in the month of December 2020 and January 2021 amongst Medicos, Paramedicals, Nurses and other health care professionals in a tertiary care hospital attending COVID-19 duty using an online questionnaire which included sociodemographic profile, frequency of the duty, physical, physiological, psychological difficulties faced while using PPE, and the responses was recorded according to three-point Likert’s scale. Data were analyzed using suitable statistical methods with the help of SPSS V.23.
Results: A total of227 front line warriors were included in the study with 157 (69%) males, 70 (31%) females among them 121 (53%) medicos, 68 (30%) nurses, 23 (10%) paramedicals, 15 (7%) others. Majority of them that is 186 were in 21–30 years age group, 31 in 31–40 years, 10 in >41 years. 124 (55%) used PPE for 4–6 h, 84 (37%) >6 h and 19 (8%) used for <4 h. Physical symptoms are most commonly faced health consequences followed by psychological and physiological symptoms. Medicos faced more difficulty and regularly in all three health consequences comparing with nurses and others.
Conclusion: This study provides insight into various health consequences and difficulties experienced by the health care professionals while on PPE. Surveillance of the physical, physiological and psychological health consequences enroute us to prepare efficiently for future outbreaks worldwide.
Downloads
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 Asian Journal of Medical Sciences
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- The journal holds copyright and publishes the work under a Creative Commons CC-BY-NC license that permits use, distribution and reprduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes. The journal should be recognised as the original publisher of this work.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
