Assessing compliance with standard precautions for prevention of hepatitis B infection of health care staff

ABSTRACT

Health care working should be considered as an occupational hazard. Risk of blood-borne viruses and preventing needle stick injuries, high costs of treatment and many patients capability lead to principles are called standard precautions. The aim of this study was to evaluate the standard precautions for preventing hepatitis B infection in the health care staff. A cross sectional study was conducted on 135 employees of health services . Data were collected using questionnaires for data analysis and statistical software was used SPSS-Verl9. 23% of employees had been injured at least one time during their working years. 30 [21%] cases of injuries were reported, logistic regression analysis showed that the most important factors of decreasing the risk of injuries and raising the standard precautions were health care workers willingness to work [OR =1.78, CI=6.38-0.49] and standard precautions at the health center officials [OR =1.67, CI=3.62-0.53]. Between jobs [p= 0.12], jobs status, educational level and the cause of injury [P< 0.05] with injuries significant relation were observed. The most common cause of injury was getting blood [10.40%] and the most prevalent means or instrument of damage was needle [11.10%]. Our findings need to be revised in new construction principles affecting specialists' standard precautions for prevention of hepatitis B infection