Am J Infect Control . Impact of personal protective equipment use on health care workers' physical health during the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review and meta-analysis

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Am J Infect Control


. 2021 May 6;S0196-6553(21)00296-0.
doi: 10.1016/j.ajic.2021.04.084. Online ahead of print.
Impact of personal protective equipment use on health care workers' physical health during the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review and meta-analysis


Petros Galanis ¹ , Irene Vraka ² , Despoina Fragkou ³ , Angeliki Bilali ⁴ , Daphne Kaitelidou ³



Affiliations

• PMID: 33965463
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ajic.2021.04.084

Abstract

Background: During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, health care workers (HCWs) have been obliged to wear personal protective equipment (PPE). We assessed the impact of PPE use on HCWs' physical health and we examined factors related to a greater risk of adverse events due to PPE use.
Methods: We applied the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis guidelines and the Cochrane criteria. We searched PubMed, Medline, Scopus, ProQuest, CINAHL, and medRxiv from January 1, 2020 to December 27, 2020.
Results: Our review included 14 studies with 11,746 HCWs. The estimated overall prevalence of adverse events among HCWs was 78% with a range from 42.8% to 95.1% among studies. Among others, the following factors were related to the risk of adverse events among HCWs due to PPE use: obesity, diabetes mellitus, smoking, pre-existing headache, longer duration of shifts wearing PPE, increased consecutive days with PPE, and increased exposure to confirmed or suspected COVID-19 patients.
Conclusions: The frequency of adverse events among HCWs due to PPE use is very high. Healthcare facilities should take the necessary precautions and change the working conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic to prevent adverse events associated with PPE use and minimize harm to HCWs.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; adverse events; health care workers; personal protective equipment.