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. 2021 Aug 26;112(4):320-326.
doi: 10.23749/mdl.v112i4.11670.

Occupational hand dermatitis web survey in a university hospital during COVID-19 pandemic: the SHIELD study

Angela Rizzi  1 , Riccardo Inchingolo  2 , Marinella Viola  3 , Luca Boldrini  4 , Jacopo Lenkowicz  5 , Franziska Michaela Lohmeyer  6 , Francesco Maria De Simone  7 , Domenico Staiti  8 , Caterina Sarnari  9 , Antonio Gasbarrini  10 , Eleonora Nucera  11
Affiliations

Occupational hand dermatitis web survey in a university hospital during COVID-19 pandemic: the SHIELD study

Angela Rizzi et al. Med Lav. .

Abstract

Background: Occupational hand dermatitis (OHD) is a skin disease occurring on employees' hands in certain jobs. Little is known about prevalence, incidence and characteristics of this adverse skin reaction and its associated risk factors during COVID-19 pandemic. To evaluate both prevalence and incidence of OHD and associated risk factors in Italian clinicians.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed using a self-report questionnaire.

Results: Two hundred and thirty clinicians responded to the survey and 82% of responders did not report previous OHD history before the COVID-19 pandemic. Daily use of gloves was reported by 80% of responders. OHD prevalence was 18%, while incidence was 80%. We found a protective effect on symptom occurrence for vinyl/nitrile gloves if the time with gloves was ≥ 6 hours per day.

Conclusions: This survey reveals a high OHD incidence in an Italian population of clinicians. Furthermore, wearing vinyl/nitrile gloves for at least 6 hours a day had a protective effect on symptom onset.

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Conflict of interest statement

This research received no external funding.

The study was conducted according to the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki, and approved by the Ethics Committee of Fondazione Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli IRCCS in Rome, Italy (ID 3274; Prot. N. 0025420/20).

Patient consent was waived due to data were collected anonymously.

No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported by the authors

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Frequency of OHD symptoms.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
OHD incidence: logistic regression model through AIC-based stepwise model selection with covariates which resulted statistically significant at the univariate analysis. All covariates were considered as non-interacting. *: A threshold of 0.05 on p-values was considered significant for statistical test. SE~: Standard Error. HEɫ: hand eczema
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
OHD incidence. Logistic regression model through AIC-based stepwise model selection with covariates which resulted statistically significant at the univariate analysis with the addition of an interaction term between “time with gloves” and “type of gloves”. *: A threshold of 0.05 on p-values was considered significant for statistical test. SE~: Standard Error. HEɫ: hand eczema
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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