Vet World   Vol.13   November-2020  Article-36

Risk factors and prevalence of work-related injuries and accidents among veterinarians in India

Background and Aim: Veterinary medicine is a high-risk occupation and imparts a risk of physical injuries due to the unpredictable nature of the animals and workplace conditions. This study aimed to identify the associated risk factors and prevalence of work-related injuries, and automobile accidents among veterinarians in India.

Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out among veterinarians (n=565). The responses were recorded using a self-administered questionnaire on work-related injuries, automobile accidents, and physical hazards.

Results: Work-related injuries due to animals in the past 2 years were reported by more than half of veterinarians (prevalence=54.7%, 95% confidence interval [CI]=50.58-58.79), while two-thirds experienced workplace injuries due to animals during any time of their career. The risk for injury was 1.1 times higher (odds ratio=1.1, 95% CI=0.611, 1.981) for veterinarians with a long job duration (>10 years). Large animal practicing veterinarians faced a higher (2.03 times) risk of injury. Workplace absenteeism due to animal-related injury (up to 15 or more days) was reported by 25.9% (95% CI=22.44-29.68) of respondents, including hospitalizations for 7.8% of veterinarians. More than half of veterinarians suffered from automobile injuries (prevalence=60.9%, 95% CI=6.8-64.8) due to work-related travel in the past 2 years, resulting in workplace absenteeism for 56.2% (95% CI=51.46-60.97) of subjects. The prevalence of needlestick injury among veterinarians was very high and reported as 80.9% (95% CI=77.49-83.99). Recapping of needles significantly increased the risk of needlestick injury by 1.67 times.

Conclusion: Veterinarians are at risk of work-related injuries, including automobile accidents. Kicking by animals and needlestick injuries were the most frequent physical hazards. Recapping of needles and responding to emergency calls at night were significant risk factors for needlestick injury and automobile accidents, respectively. Keywords: accidents, needlestick, occupational hazards, physical hazards, veterinarians, workplace absenteeism, work-related injuries.

Keywords: accidents, needlestick, occupational hazards, physical hazards, veterinarians, workplace absenteeism, work-related injuries.

How to cite this article: Mishra S, Palkhade R (2020) Risk factors and prevalence of work-related injuries and accidents among veterinarians in India, Veterinary World, 13(11): 2555-2564.

Received: 16-07-2020  Accepted: 20-10-2020     Published online: 30-11-2020

Corresponding author: Rajendra Palkhade   E-mail: drpalkhade@gmail.com

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2020.2555-2564

Copyright: Mishra and Palkhade, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.