The Prevalence, Predictors, and Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Concerning Percutaneous Exposure Incidents among Healthcare Workers and Students in Africa: A Narrative Review.

Abstract

Introduction:Percutaneous exposure incidents (PEIs) encompass needlestick injuries, injuries involving sharp objects, and exposures of the skin and mucous membranes to potentially infectious blood, saliva, tissue, and other bodily fluids. The burden of PEIs among healthcare workers and students remains a challenge globally while newer predictors of PEIs continue to emerge. Objective:This study is aimed at ascertaining the prevalence, predictors and level of knowledge, attitudes, and practices concerning PEIs among healthcare workers and students. Methods:This review was conducted using a systematic literature search of the following databases and registers: PubMed, Directory of Open Access Journals, Research4life, ScienceDirect, Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations, Open Access Theses and Dissertations, TROVE, Latin American and Caribbean Centre on Health Sciences Information, Scopus, The Cochrane Library, Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature [via EBSCOhost], Africa Journal Online, Google Scholar, and MedNar in December 2023. Observational studies, experimental studies, case-control studies, longitudinal studies, theses and dissertations were considered in these searches. A total of fifty-six studies and 16,607 respondents participated in the review. Results:The annual prevalence of PEIs in Africa ranged from 18.7% to 83.3%, meanwhile, the lifetime prevalence varied between 15.6% and 90.3%. The overall annual and lifetime prevalences were 48.0% and 44.6% respectively. Notable predictors of PEI occurrence included needle recapping, female gender, increased workload, and lack of infection prevention and patient safety training. A majority of respondents exhibited good knowledge, positive attitudes and good practices concerning PEIs Conclusions: The prevalence of PEIs is still high among African healthcare workers and students in the presence of a consistent emergence of novel predictors. The knowledge, attitudes, and practices of African healthcare workers and students are encouraging, however, the need for more investigations in this domain cannot be ruled out for a more holistic piece of evidence.