You are here

Article Text

Article menu
Download PDFPDF
Original research
Investigation of adverse reactions in healthcare personnel working in Level 3 barrier protection PPE to treat COVID-19
  1. Niu Yuan1,
  2. Wei-Xia Yang2,
  3. Jian-Li Lu3,
  4. Zhang-Hong Lv1
  1. 1 Department of Respiratory Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China
  2. 2 Department of Respiratory and Gastroenterology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China
  3. 3 Deparment of Orthopedics, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China
  1. Correspondence to Mrs Zhang-Hong Lv, Department of Respiratory Medicine, First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, #79, Qingchun Road, Hangzhou 310006, China; zylvzhanghong{at}163.com

Abstract

Purpose of the study The aim of our study was to investigate potential adverse reactions in healthcare professionals working in Level 3 barrier protection personal protective equipment (L3PPE) to treat patients with COVID-19.

Study design By using a convenience sampling approach, 129 out of 205 randomly selected healthcare professionals from the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine were invited to take part in a WeChat messaging app survey, Questionnaire Star, via a survey link. Healthcare personnel details were collected, including profession, years of professional experience and adverse reactions while wearing L3PPE. Survey results were divided by profession and years of professional experience; differences in adverse reactions were compared.

Results Among the 129 healthcare professionals surveyed, 21 (16.28%) were doctors and 108 (83.72%) were nurses. A total of 122 (94.57%) healthcare professionals experienced discomfort while wearing L3PPE to treat patients with COVID-19. The main reasons for adverse reactions and discomfort include varying degrees of adverse skin reactions, respiratory difficulties, heat stress, dizziness and nausea. Doctors had a lower incidence of rashes (χ2=4.519, p=0.034) and dizziness (χ2=4.123, p=0.042) when compared with nurses. Junior (8.5 years of experience or fewer) healthcare personnel also experienced a higher rate of heat stress when compared with senior personnel (more than 8.5 years greater) (χ2=5.228, p=0.022).

Conclusion More attention should be offered to healthcare personnel wearing L3PPE to treat patients with COVID-19 because they are susceptible to developing adverse reactions.

  • RESPIRATORY MEDICINE (see Thoracic Medicine)

This article is made freely available for use in accordance with BMJ’s website terms and conditions for the duration of the covid-19 pandemic or until otherwise determined by BMJ. You may use, download and print the article for any lawful, non-commercial purpose (including text and data mining) provided that all copyright notices and trade marks are retained.

https://bmj.com/coronavirus/usage

http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/postgradmedj-2020-137854

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    View Full Text

    Footnotes

    • Contributors Z-HL and W-XY planned the study. NY and J-LL collected the data and performed the statistical analysis. NY and Z-HL wrote the paper.

    • Funding This study is supported by the No. 7 sub-project of key emergency research programme of Science Technology Department of Zhejiang Province (No. 2020C03123-07).

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent for publication Not required.

    • Data sharing statement All data relevant to the study are included in the article or uploaded as supplementary information.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.