Prevalence of non-sterile injuries among modern medicine students of Assam

Objectives: To study the prevalence and associated factors of non-sterile occupational injuries among students of modern medicine in Assam. Methodology: A cross sectional survey was conducted using a self-administered, pre-tested, structured questionnaire in English language adapted from the CDC workbook for designing, implementing and evaluating a sharps injury prevention program 2008. All the final year medical, dental and nursing students from the three medical colleges and one dental college in Assam were included in the study. Univariate, bivariate and multivariate analysis were done using SPSS version 17.0. Results: Sharp injuries were highest among nursing students (50.5 percent) followed by dental (45.2 percent) and medical (30.0 percent) students whereas body fluid contact were highest among medical students (37.7 percent) followed by dental (32.3 percent) and nursing (30.3 percent) students. Gender, discipline, residence, procedure, perception of risk for infections and recapping of needle were the predictors for sharp injuries and when adjusted for other independent variables, procedure and recapping of needle were the most important predictors of sharp injuries whereas procedure, awareness about transmission of infection, perception of risk for infections, type of exposure and use of doctor’s apron were the predictors for body fluid contact and after adjusting for other independent variables, procedure and use of doctor’s apron were the most important predictors for body fluid contact. Conclusion: Non-sterile occupational injuries among the students of modern medicine are associated with factors which can be modified by intensive education and training of the students. Policy changes at the institute level can help in this direction.