Sharps Injuries Among Healthcare Workers in Liberia and Ghana: A Cross-Sectional Survey

Objective There is little data on sharps injuries among healthcare workers in West Africa, despite the region’s high rate of Hepatitis B and HIV. The purpose of this study is to investigate healthcare workers’ history of sharps injury in Liberia and Ghana. Design An electronic cross-sectional survey disseminated by local nursing, midwifery, physician assistant, and physician associations. Setting Healthcare workers in Liberia and Ghana from February to June 2022. Participants Participant were registered nurses, physician assistants, physicians, or midwives, and had been working in a patient care role for at least nine of the previous twelve months. Methods A link to the survey was texted to participants through their professional association membership lists, including nursing, midwifery, and physician assistant organizations in both Liberia and Ghana and a physician organization in Ghana only. Results 509 participants reported an average of 1.8 injuries per year in Liberia and 1.1 in Ghana (p=<0.01). 15.1% of healthcare workers reported three or more injuries in the past year. Liberia had a higher proportion of frequently injured workers (p=<0.01). Frequently injured workers were evenly distributed across worker types. Conclusions Workers in this region are vulnerable to sharps injuries. A frequently injured subset of workers likely has distinctive risk factors and would benefit from further investigation and intervention. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. ### Funding Statement This study was funded by the University of Michigan Center of Occupational and Safety Engineering. The PI was also funded by as a T32 fellow in Complexity: Innovations in Promoting Health and Safety (CIPHS), National Institute of Nursing Research (T32 NR016914, PI: Titler) at the time of data collection. ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below: This project received in-country approval from the University of Liberia Institutional Review Board (Protocol #21-12-296) and the Ghana Health Services Ethics Research Committee (GHS ERC Number: 018/11/2021). It was deemed exempt by the Institutional Review Board of the University of Michigan and the University of Cincinnati. I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable. Yes All data produced in the present study are available upon reasonable request to the authors, as is the survey instrument.