Skin-related problems associated with the use of personal protective equipment among health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic: A online survey study

Aim: The aim of this study was to determine the skin-related problems caused by personal protective equipment (PPE) use in health care workers (HCWs) and to identify the factors contributing to their occurrence. Materials and Methods: This descriptive and cross-sectional online survey study was carried out with 297 HCWs working in a university hospital in Turkey between March 20, 2021, and May 20, 2021. The study data was collected using an online questionnaire consisting of 3 parts. Descriptive statistics, Pearson's Chi-square, and Fisher's Exact Chi-square tests were used to analyze the data. Results: Among the HCWs, 95.6% reported that skin-related problems associated with at least one PPE use. Skin-related problems that develop due to PPE use were mostly associated with the use of Surgical/N95 masks (97.1%) and gloves (96.8%). The most commonly reported problems were "dryness" (%74.0) and "itching" (% 72.1) when wearing gloves, "perspiration and moisture" (73.6%), "formation of equipment traces" (53.9%), and "skin lesions" (52.8%) when wearing a surgical/N95 mask, "perspiration and moisture" (89.7%) when wearing protective overalls/gowns. Wearing PPE for more than 4h (p=0.001), taking additional precautions to increase the sense of protection (p=0.026), and not applying preventive measures while using PPE (p=0.003) significantly increase the risk of skin-related problems. Conclusion: The results suggest that skin-related problems due to the use of PPE are common among HCWs.