Abstract
Purpose
Psychosocial work characteristics may be associated with needle stick and sharps injuries (NSIs) among nurses. The current evidence is, however, sparse, inconclusive, and mainly limited to cross-sectional investigations. We aimed to contribute prospective data.
Methods
We conducted a prospective study among 1,791 female hospital nurses from China. At baseline and at a 1-year follow-up, fourteen psychosocial work characteristics were assessed by the short Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire. At follow-up, any NSI in the workplace during the previous year was measured by participants’ self-reports. We quantified associations between (1) psychosocial work characteristics at baseline and NSIs at follow-up by multivariate relative risks (Poisson regression) and (2) NSIs reported at follow-up with psychosocial work characteristics at follow-up (multivariate linear regression, among others, adjusted for psychosocial work characteristics at baseline).
Results
The only psychosocial work characteristic associated with a slightly increased risk of subsequent NSIs was quantitative demands. Examining the opposite direction of effect, we found that NSIs during the year preceding the follow-up were associated with slightly worse ratings of seven psychosocial work characteristics at follow-up (i.e., influence at work, meaning of work, commitment to the workplace, quality of leadership, social support, social community at work, and job insecurity).
Conclusions
Overall, our study does not provide compelling evidence for an association of psychosocial work characteristics and subsequent occurrence of NSIs. By contrast, experience of NSIs may predict less favorable perceptions of psychosocial work characteristics.
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Acknowledgments
This project was partly supported by a Marie Curie International Incoming Fellowship within the 7th European Community Framework Programme (PIIF-GA-2008-220641). The authors would like to thank all the nurses of the Chinese NEXT Study for their continuous participation. We also gratefully acknowledge Dr. Hua Fu and Dr. Yan Hu for their excellent scientific collaboration during field work and data collection.
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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
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Loerbroks, A., Shang, L., Angerer, P. et al. Psychosocial work characteristics and needle stick and sharps injuries among nurses in China: a prospective study. Int Arch Occup Environ Health 88, 925–932 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-015-1021-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-015-1021-6