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Background & Aim: Needlestick injuries (NSIs) are a serious occupational hazard for health care providers and nurses that are often not reported for various reasons. Several studies have reported a different rate of this great challenge. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to estimate the prevalence of under-reporting of NSIs in healthcare providers in Iran.
Methods & Materials: By searching national and international databases including SID, Magiran, Google Scholar, IranMedex, Science Direct, PubMed and Scopus, 19 published articles were extracted. Data analysis was carried out through the random-effects model, and heterogeneity was investigated by I² index. The data were analyzed using the Stata software version 12.0.
Results: The rate of non-reporting of NSIs in 19 relevant articles in Iran with the sample size of 9274 was 59% (95% CI: 49-69). The rate of under-reporting of NSIs in the healthcare providers (64%) was higher than in nurses (55%). Based on the meta-regression results, there was no significant relationship between the prevalence of under-reporting of NSIs and the year of publication (P=0.138), sample size (P=0.390) and age (P=0.918).
Conclusion: The results of the study showed that more than half of health care providers did not report NSIs. Notifying health care providers about the risks of NSIs and properly dealing with the injured cases is necessary in order to increase the reporting of NSIs.
 

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Background & Aim: Needlestick injury is an occupational risk. Medical university students are more likely to prone to this kind of injury in comparison to other students due to their limited knowledge, skills and clinical experiences. The present systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to estimate the prevalence of needlestick injury in medical university students in Iran.
Methods & Materials: In the present systematic review and meta-analysis, 22 papers written by Iranian researchers published in Persian and English, were included without time limitations. The articles were found by searching Iranian (Magiran, Scientific Information Databases (SID) and IranMedex) and international (Google Scholar, Web of Science, PubMed and Scopus) databases. Data were analyzed using meta-analysis method and the random effects model.
Results: The overall prevalence of needlestick injury among medical university students was 47% (95% CI: 39-55). There was no relationship between vaccine coverage, age of samples, and sample size with the prevalence of needlestick injury. The prevalence of needlestick injuries significantly decreased with increase in the publication years of articles (P=0.03), and significantly increased (P=0.049) with lack of reporting.
Conclusion: Considering the high prevalence of needlestick injury in the students of medical sciences universities, it is of great necessity to design educational programs focusing on the proper use of sharp and cutting instruments as well as the importance of reporting and modifying professional behavior such as avoiding the reinsertion of needles in order to reduce the incidence rate of needlestick injuries.
 

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Background & Aim: Operating room personnel are always exposed to blood-borne infections because of Needlestick Injuries (NSIs). Thus, this study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of an educational intervention to promote NSIs preventive behaviors among the operating room personnel based on the health belief model (HBM).
Methods & Materials: This is an interventional study with a pre-test/post-test, control group design, conducted on 90 operating room personnel (45 personnel in each group) from four hospitals in Hamadan City in 2018. The participants completed a self-administered questionnaire including demographic and professional variables and HBM constructs. The intervention included four educational sessions held for the experimental group within one month. Both groups were followed up for three months after the intervention. Data were analyzed by the SPSS software version 18 using independent t-test, chi-square, Fisher exact test, and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA).
Results: The results showed that before the educational intervention, there was no statistically significant difference in the mean scores of HBM constructs between the experimental and control groups (P>0.05). However, after the educational intervention, both the experimental and control groups had a statistically significant difference between before and after changes in the mean scores of knowledge, perceived vulnerability, perceived benefits, perceived self-efficacy, and NSIs preventive behaviors (P<0.05).
Conclusion: According to the results, applying the educational intervention based on the HBM is an appropriate and effective approach in preventing NSIs among the operating room personnel.