Abstract
Prevalence of Skin Damage in Health Care Workers: Nenad KRALJ, et al. Department of Occupational Physiology, Occupational Medicine and Infection Prevention, University of Wuppertal, Faculty of Occupational Security—Occupational skin disease (OSD) is the most common occupational hazard in industrial countries. The purpose of this study was to evaluate skin damage prevalence in health care workers (HCWs) obtained in two surveys (1988 and 1995). Employees of Freiburg University Hospital (Germany, 1, 900 beds, 7, 000 staff members; study S1: 1988, n=3899; study S2: 1995, n=4013) answered our self-administered questionnaire during the regular yearly medical examination. 409 persons were included in both study populations. Skin problems were found in 507 (13%) persons in S1 and 485 (12.1%) in S2, respectively. The skin damage prevalence in employees examined in both studies was 15.6% (S1) and 14.9% (S2), respectively. The prevalence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) markers did not differ significantly between persons with and without OSD.
