Evaluation of the risk factors for acute occupational hand injuries

To evaluate the effect of demographic and occupational factors on the severity of the acute occupational hand injuries.

Patients with acute hand injuries presenting to the emergency department of the Ege university hospital between 01.08.2008 and 27.02.2009 were included. A questionnaire investigating demographic and occupational factors of the patients and their injuries was filled out for each patient. Modified Hand Injury Severity Score (MHISS) was used to assess the severity of the injury.

A total of 144 subjects were included. Forty-three patients had occupational hand injuries. Age at injury, occupation, and main earning status did not alter the MHISS score significantly. Also, the mechanism of injury, occupational experience, timing of the injury, glove use, safety training did not have a significant effect on the injury severity. The injury pattern was found to have a statistically significant effect on the MHISS score.

The potentially modifiable factors such as the working conditions, safety training and use of gloves are important in the etiology of occupational acute hand injury. Most probably, in this study the size of the sample was not large enough to be able to demonstrate any relation between these and the injury severity. However, attempts to modify these factors by various strategies may reduce the incidence of acute hand injury at work. Precautions and widespread educational programs can prevent occupational acute hand injury.