ArticleTropical medicine and health2023
Bacterial contamination of healthcare workers' mobile phones in Africa: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Article in Tropical medicine and health, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed.
- Study of Microbial Contamination of Mobile Phones of Dental and Medical Students and Its Potential Epidemiological Implications for Microbial Transmission.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Multidrug-resistant bacterial contamination of healthcare workers' mobile phones, decontamination efficacy, and potential implications for hospital-acquired infections.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- High efficiency of 70% isopropanol in reducing microbial contamination on healthcare workers' smartphone surfaces: a pre-post study in Peru.Antimicrobial resistance and infection control · 2026Article
- Hand-mobile phone culture-burden associations and taxon-level concordance among healthcare-associated personnel: a paired cross-sectional study.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2026Article
- Bacterial contamination on mobile phones in the theatre area of a large veterinary hospital.Veterinary record open · 2025Article
- Extended spectrum betalactamase and carbapenemase producing gram negative bacteria from mobile phones of healthcare workers at Debre Berhan Hospital, Ethiopia.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Exploring Multidrug-Resistant Gram-Positive Bacteria on Electronic Devices: A Comparative Experimental Study Based on the Gender of Healthcare and Nonhealthcare Workers.The Canadian journal of infectious diseases & medical microbiology = Journal canadien des maladies infectieuses et de la microbiologie medicale · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
16 authors.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundMobile phones are potential reservoirs for pathogens and sources of healthcare-associated infections. More microbes can be found on a mobile phone than on a man's lavatory seat, the sole of a shoe, or a door handle. When examining patients, frequent handling of mobile phones can spread bacteria. Nevertheless, evidence of bacterial contamination of mobile phones used by healthcare workers in Africa was inconclusive. Thus, this meta-analysis and systematic review was conducted to estimate the pooled prevalence of bacterial contamination of mobile phones used by healthcare workers and the most frequent bacterial isolates in Africa.
methodsWe systematically retrieved relevant studies using PubMed/MEDLINE, POPLINE, HINARI, Science Direct, Cochrane Library databases, and Google Scholar from July 1, 2023 to August 08, 2023. We included observational studies that reported the prevalence of bacterial contamination of mobile phones among healthcare workers. The DerSimonian-random Laird's effect model was used to calculate effect estimates for the pooled prevalence of bacterial contamination in mobile phones and a 95% confidence interval (CI).
resultsAmong 4544 retrieved studies, 26 eligible articles with a total sample size of 2,887 study participants were included in the meta-analysis. The pooled prevalence of mobile phone bacterial contamination among healthcare workers was 84.5% (95% CI 81.7, 87.4%; I
conclusionsIn this review, the contamination of mobile phones used by HCWs with various bacterial isolates was shown to be considerable. The most prevalent bacteria isolates were coagulase-negative staphylococci, Staphylococcus aurous, and Escherichia coli. The prevalence of bacterial contamination in mobile phones varies by country and sub-region. Hence, healthcare planners and policymakers should establish norms to manage healthcare workers' hand hygiene and disinfection after using mobile phones.
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