Objective  To estimate the incidence of adverse skin reactions (ASRs) related to personal protective equipment (PPE) use among front-line medical staff during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic control in Wuhan city and to provide references for developing occupational protection strategies.

  Methods  Using convenient sampling, we conducted an online questionnaire survey among 325 medical staff engaged in front-line COVID-19 epidemic control work at 10 hospitals in Wuhan city during February 13 – 20, 2020.

  Results  Among all the respondents, 243 (74.77%) experienced ASRs after using PPE; of which, 76 (31.1%) did not treated the illness and only 21 (8.6%) sought help from professionals. The reported number of ASRs associated with the usage of masks, gloves, gowns and shoe covers were 586, 241, 38, and 24 and the reported incidence of the ASRs associated with the usage of the four kinds of PPE were 69.54% (226/325), 34.58% (111/321), 7.57% (24/317), and 2.94% (9/306), respectively. The results of logistic regression analysis revealed that compared to those using PPE ≤ 4 hours per day, the medical staff using PPE more than 4 hours per day were more likely to have ASRs (odds ratio OR = 2.307, 95% confidence interval 95% CI: 1.037 – 5.314); while, the medical staff ever receiving trainings on occupational skin protection were less likely to have ASRs (OR = 0.457, 95% CI: 0.272 – 0.768) in comparison with those not receiving the trainings.

  Conclusion  The incidence of adverse skin reactions related to use of personal protective equipment is relatively high among medical staff engaged in front-line COVID-19 epidemic control work and the incidence is mainly influenced by the time of the equipment use and whether receiving training on occupational skin protection.