Investigation on mental health status of medical staff potentially exposed to biological hazards

Objective  To understand the mental health status of medical staff potentially exposed to biological hazards and the change of mental health condition after occurrence of exposure to human biological fluids, and provide orientation to manage such potential health problem.

Methods  The mental health status of 2 groups of medical staff, i.e, with potential exposure risk (n=50) and exposed to human biological fluids within one week (n=64), were surveyed with the symptom checklist 90 (SCL-90).

Results  Compared with the adult Chinese normative scores, the medical staff with potential risk of exposure to biological hazards had higher scores of depression(P < 0.05), while the scores of other items in SCL-90 were in normal scope. However, the staff exposed to human biological fluids within one week had higher score of all items in SCL-90(P < 0.05). The percentage of medical staff with higher scores than norm varied among different sub-groups, such as, 44.44%, 53.85% and 89.47% for doctors, nurses and trainees; 73.81% and 42.85% for the staff with age ≤ 30 and>30, and the differences were statistically significant(P < 0.05). It seemed that the staff exposed to human biological fluids within one week had a lower attitude to preventive measures during the operation and precaution treatment than the staff with potential exposure risk(P < 0.01).

Conclusion  The mental health status of staff exposed to human biological fluids are worse. Hospitals should strengthen the preventive measures in daily work and provide psychological counseling for the medical staff.