ArticleIndian journal of occupational and environmental medicine
Prevalence of Physical and Psychological Impacts of Wearing Personal Protective Equipment on Health Care Workers During COVID-19: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Article in Indian journal of occupational and environmental medicine. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
What it found
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The trial behind it
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 11 citations in OpenAlex.
- Workers' well-being during viral pandemics and epidemics: A scoping review.Comprehensive psychoneuroendocrinology · 2025Review
- Mental health among healthcare workers during COVID-19: a study to oversee the impact of the risk perception and relationship with inflammation from blood-based extracellular vesicles.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Occupational exposure to blood-borne pathogens among health workers at a tertiary hospital in China during 2016-2022: multi-round evaluation of comprehensive intervention.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Article
- Australian health care workers experience of PPE related side-effects. A cross-sectional survey.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) among the frontline health care workers (HCWs). Even though PPE helps in preventing infection, it poses significant physical and psychological impacts at varying levels. Correspondingly, multiple independent studies have brought out the PPE-associated problems. However, there exists a lacuna on comprehensive information of global prevalence related to the same. Aim: To estimate the prevalence and risk factors of PPE among HCWs during COVID-19 across the globe. Design: Systematic review and meta-analysis. Method: The review was undertaken as per the protocol registered in PROSPERO CRD42021272216 following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis(PRISMA) guidelines. Two independent reviewers have undertaken the search strategy, study selection, and methodological quality assessment. Discrepancies were addressed by the third reviewer. Heterogeneity was addressed through I2 statistics and forest plots generated by open meta-software. Results: A total of 16 articles conducted across 6 different countries among 10,182 HCWs were included in the review. The pooled prevalence of skin lesions, headache, sweating, breathing difficulty, vision difficulty, thirst/dry mouth, fatigue, and communication difficulty, anxiety, fear were 57 (47-66%), 51 (37-64%), 75 (56-90%), 44 (23-68%), 61 (21-94%), 54 (30-77%), 67 (58-76%), 74 (47-94%), 28 (24-33%), 14 (10-17%), respectively. Moreover, the various risk factors included are the use of PPE for >6 h and young females. In addition, the medical management of new-onset problems created an additional burden on the frontline health care personnel (HCP). Conclusion: The frontline HCWs encountered physical and psychological problems at varying levels as a result of wearing PPE which needs to be addressed to prevent the inadequate use of PPE leading to infections.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.