Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Oct 25;12(10):e064499.
doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2022-064499.

Occupational health hazards among healthcare providers and ancillary staff in Ghana: a scoping review

Philip Apraku Tawiah  1   2 , Alberta Baffour-Awuah  3 , Emmanuel Sintim Effah  4 , Geoffrey Adu-Fosu  5 , Mary Eyram Ashinyo  6   7 , Robert Kaba Alhassan  8 , Emmanuel Appiah-Brempong  9 , Evans Afriyie-Gyawu  10
Affiliations

Occupational health hazards among healthcare providers and ancillary staff in Ghana: a scoping review

Philip Apraku Tawiah et al. BMJ Open. .

Abstract

Objective: The strict implementation of occupational health and safety policy curbs exposure to occupational hazards. However, empirical evidence is lacking in the Ghanaian context. This review primarily aimed to explore exposure to occupational hazards among healthcare providers and ancillary staff in Ghana.

Design: A scoping review was conducted based on Arksey and O'Malley's methodological framework and Levac et al's methodological enhancement.

Data sources: Searches were conducted of the PubMed, MEDLINE, CINAHL, Embase, PsycINFO and Scopus databases, as well as Google Scholar and websites of tertiary institutions in Ghana, for publications from 1 January 2010 to 30 November 2021.

Eligibility criteria: Quantitative studies that were published in the English language and focused on occupational exposure to biological and/or non-biological hazards among healthcare professionals in Ghana were included.

Data extraction and synthesis: Two independent reviewers extracted the data based on the type of occupational exposure and descriptive characteristics of the studies. The data are presented in tables and graphs. A narrative summary of review findings was prepared based on the review research questions.

Results: Our systematic search strategy retrieved 507 publications; however, only 43 met the inclusion criteria. A little over one-quarter were unpublished theses/dissertations. The included studies were related to biological, psychosocial, ergonomic and other non-biological hazards. 55.8% of the studies were related to exposure to biological hazards and related preventive measures. In general, health workers were reported to use and comply with control and preventive measures; however, knowledge of control and preventive measures was suboptimal.

Conclusion: Work is needed to address the issue of occupational health hazard exposure in Ghana's health system. More research is needed to understand the extent of these exposures and their effects on the health system.

Keywords: EPIDEMIOLOGY; Health & safety; Health policy; OCCUPATIONAL & INDUSTRIAL MEDICINE; PUBLIC HEALTH.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow chart illustrating the scoping review study selection process.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Characteristics of studies.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Moore RM, Kaczmarek RG. Occupational hazards to health care workers: diverse, ill-defined, and not fully appreciated. Am J Infect Control 1990;18:316–27. 10.1016/0196-6553(90)90231-G - DOI - PubMed
    1. Crutcher JM, Lamm SH, Hall TA. Procedures to protect health-care workers from HIV infection: category I (health-care) workers. Am Ind Hyg Assoc J 1991;52:A-100–A-103. 10.1080/15298669191364370 - DOI - PubMed
    1. World Health Organization . Occupational health [Internet], 2021. Available: https://www.who.int/health-topics/occupational-health [Accessed 11 Sep 2021].
    1. The Lancet . COVID-19: protecting health-care workers. The Lancet 2020;395:922. 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30644-9 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. McDiarmid MA. Hazards of the health care sector: looking beyond infectious disease. Ann Glob Health 2014;80:315. 10.1016/j.aogh.2014.08.001 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types