Doctors with skin injuries due to personal protective equipment in a dedicated COVID-19 hospital: A descriptive study from tribal India

Abstract

Background: With the emergence of highly infectious epidemics/pandemics, such as Ebola virus diseases, severe acute respiratory syndrome, and coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19), doctors are at much greater risk of infection due to the exposure to the highly infectious bodily fluids and droplet nuclei. Hence, treating and caring for patients need the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) to reduce the transmission risk. Objectives: The present study was conducted to estimate the prevalence of skin injury and its type due to PPE usage, to find the association of related factors with the skin injuries among doctors. Materials and Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted after obtaining the institutional ethical approval in dedicated COVID-19 hospital for a period of 4 months among 132 doctors wearing grades 2 and 3 PPE kit using a questionnaire collecting the details regarding baseline, duty, skin injury characterization. During analysis of data, an association between variables was significant for P < 0.05. Results: It was observed that 17.1% of doctors were wearing the PPE kit for 5 or more hours/and 13.0% of subjects reported absenteeism from duty hours due to PPE-induced skin injuries. 76.4% of subjects have suffered from skin injury after PPE usage. The most common symptoms/signs for the skin injury occurred was indentation and pain on back of ears (61.0%). Conclusion: The skin injuries of PPE among the doctors may result in reduced morale for overloaded work and made them anxious. Hence, an appropriate monitoring of these adverse effects should be done and effective preventive measures should be adopted. © 2022 Journal of Medical Society ;Published by Wolters Kluwer - Medknow.