Personal Protective Equipment in COVID-19: Impacts on Health Performance, Work-Related Injuries, and Measures for Prevention

Xiaoqin Duan; Hongzhi Sun; Yuxuan He; Junling Yang; Xinming Li; Kritika Taparia; Bin Zheng

doi:10.1097/JOM.0000000000002123

Personal Protective Equipment in COVID-19: Impacts on Health Performance, Work-Related Injuries, and Measures for Prevention

J Occup Environ Med. 2021 Mar 1;63(3):221-225. doi: 10.1097/JOM.0000000000002123.

Authors

Xiaoqin Duan¹, Hongzhi Sun, Yuxuan He, Junling Yang, Xinming Li, Kritika Taparia, Bin Zheng

Affiliation

¹ Department of Rehabilitation Medicine (Dr Duan); Department of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine (Dr Sun); Grade 2019 in Clinical Medicine, Jilin University (Mr He); Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine (Dr Yang), Jilin University Second Hospital, Changchun, China; Department of Mechanical Engineering (Dr Li); Faculty of Science (Ms Taparia); Department of Surgery (Dr Duan, Dr Zheng), University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.

Abstract

Objective: To assess impact of personal protective equipment (PPE) on healthcare providers (HCPs) in caring for COVID-19 patients.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted over 50 hospitals in China. Descriptive analyses and Chi-square tests were performed on the collected data.

Results: All 104 frontline HCPs report negative impacts of PPE on their clinical performance, 97% of them experienced discomfort and injuries caused by wearing PPE for long hours. Frontline HCPs provided suggestions to alleviate the negative impacts and to enhance communication between healthcare staff and patients. Two hundred eighty two non-frontline HCPs also revealed similar problems; however, we recorded a few discrepancies between answers given by frontline and non-frontline HCPs.

Conclusions: Wearing PPE for long hours degrades health performance. Measures were suggested to improve the design of PPE for protecting HCPs and enhancing their services to COVID patients.

MeSH terms

Adult
COVID-19 / epidemiology*
COVID-19 / prevention & control
China / epidemiology
Cross-Sectional Studies
Female
Health Personnel / psychology
Health Personnel / statistics & numerical data
Humans
Male
Occupational Injuries / epidemiology
Occupational Injuries / etiology
Occupational Injuries / prevention & control*
Occupational Medicine / instrumentation
Occupational Medicine / statistics & numerical data
Personal Protective Equipment / adverse effects
Personal Protective Equipment / statistics & numerical data*
SARS-CoV-2
Surveys and Questionnaires
Work Performance / statistics & numerical data