Gender differences in practicing standard precautions against blood-borne pathogens among surgeons at a tertiary care center: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background: Surgeons are at an increased risk of contracting blood-borne pathogens. The aim of this study was to evaluate gender difference, surgical position, surgical experience, and subspecialty regarding surgeons’ compliance to standard precautions. Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire-based study was performed using a purposive sampling. A total of 241 surgeons were surveyed from June 2017 to January 2018. Results: In total, 179 (74.3%) males and 62 (25.7%) females completed the questionnaire. The gender difference was evident when the type of surgery was extremely important in influencing the decision on wearing double gloves (DGs); 108 (60.3%) male surgeons versus 27 (43.5%) female surgeons (P = 0.022). Although a total of 17 (30.3%) surgeons reported being extremely and very concerned about contracting human immunodeficiency virus through their work, they had never tried DG (P = 0.027). Conclusion: This study revealed that the decision of wearing DG was affected by several factors. Surgeons’ decision to wear DG was influenced by the type of surgery. This study showed that most surgeons reported lack of adherence to barrier precaution measures.

Keywords

• barrier precautions
• blood-borne pathogens
• double gloving
• surgeons
• surgical positions
• surgical specialty