Magnitude of Needle Stick and Sharp Injuries and Associated Factors Among Health Care Workers in Werabe Comprehensive Specialized Hospital, Southwest Ethiopia: A Cross-Sectional study

Background: Needle-stick and sharp injuries were one of major leading risk factor for blood and body fluid born infections among health care workers (HCWs) Objective: To assess the magnitude of occupational needle-stick and sharp injuries and associated factors among HCWs in Werabe Comprehensive Specialized Hospital (WCSH), Southwest Ethiopia Methods: Facility based cross-sectional study was conducted at WCSH from 15 to 25 August, 2020. Stratified random sampling was used to select 213 HCWs in the Hospital. A self-administered questionnaire was employed to collect data. After proportional allocation to the professionals, simple random sampling was used for each stratum. Data was entered and analyzed by using Epi info version 7 and SPSS version 22, respectively. Odds ratio was used to assess the statistical association between outcome and independent variables in bivariate and multivariate logistic regression. Significance of statistical association was tested using 95% confidence interval (CI) and P-value (<0.05) Result: 28.40% of HCWs encountered needle-stick and sharp injuries in the last 1-year. HCWs who had job related stress, whose working hours was more than 8 hours per day and didnt apply universal precaution were 8.6, 7.5 and 2.3 times more likely to encounter needle-stick and sharp injuries, respectively. HCWS with educational status above Diploma level were 90% less likely to face needle-stick and sharp injuries than their counterparts Conclusion and recommendation: The prevalence of occupational needle- stick and sharp injury was high compared to earlier studies. Educational status of diploma and above, average working hour for more than eight hours per day, not-applying universal precautions and job related stresses were factors associated with occupational needle-stick and sharp injures. Refreshment training on universal precaution and minimizing the excess working hours per day among HCWs were crucial to decrease the risk of needle stick and sharp injuries