Prevalence of occupational exposure to blood-borne substance and its influencing factors among medical practice students

Objective To study the prevalence of occupational exposure to blood-borne substance and its influencing factors among medical practice students.Methods A stratified cluster sampling was used to conduct a questionnaire survey among 510 graduates from a medical college.The data were analyzed with SAS 9.1 software.Results During the one-year practice,27.70% of the students had experienced occupational exposure to blood-borne substance.Exposure due to splashing into mucosa,sharp injuries,and contaminating wound accounted for 31.19%,66.06%,and 2.75% for all exposures,respectively.For the exposure events,68.93% were registered and 84.47% were treated immediately.The results of analyses showed education background,profession,the knowledge of protection,and the situation of training were correlated with the rates of exposure(P < 0.05).Logistic regression analyses showed that the involement in nursing or laboratory work and without the knowledge of howto deal with the contaminated sharp waste were the independent risk factors for the exposure.Compared with clinical profession,the risks of nursing and laboratory profession increased by 64% and 287%,respectively.The exposure risk for the students who did not knowhowto deal with the contaminated sharp waste was 1.64 times higher than that of whom knewthe knowledge.Conclusion The practice students are at a high risk of occupational exposure to blood-borne substance.The students majored in laboratory and nursing,and who did not knowhowto deal with the contaminated sharp waste are prone to the exposure.