Injection safety practices among resident doctors in a tertiary health facility in Benin City

Unsafe injections are a major source of infection with blood borne pathogens including hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C virus and human immunodeficiency virus. World Health Organization estimates the burden of disease associated with unsafe injection practices to be about 1.3 million early deaths, loss of about 26 million years of life and an annual burden of 535 million US dollars in direct medical costs. The present study was aimed at determining the prevalence of needle stick injury and the level of reporting among resident doctors in University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin.

A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out from September 2009 to March 2010 among 152 resident doctors in a tertiary health facility in Benin City. The study population was stratified based on their specialty of training. Proportional allocation was applied to obtain the number of participants to be selected from each stratum. Self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data and analysis was by Statistical Package for Scientific Solution (SPSS) version 16.0. (IBM SPSS solution for Education)

The prevalence of needle stick injury among the respondents was 61.8%. The most frequent reason for non-reporting was; the injury was due to a clean needle 68.9%. Awareness of reporting was 92.1% but the level of reporting was 14.9%.

The prevalence of needle stick injury was high, awareness of reporting was high but the level of reporting was low. Behavior change communication models are required to bring about a positive change in the practice of reporting.