Anxiety in health care workers after exposure to potentially HIV-contaminated blood or body fluids

Extensive measures have been undertaken to prevent transmission of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in health care workers (HCW) [1–2]. Nevertheless, exposure to potentially infectious blood or other body fluids, in particular needle stick injuries, is still frequent and probably underreported [3–8]. The risk of HIV-transmission after percutaneous exposure to HIV-infected blood is approximately 0.3% [9]. In our experience HCWs are often subject to anxiety following occupational exposure to potentially contaminated material. Studies examining this issue are scarce or lacking, especially for the period following introduction of the potent antiretroviral therapies [10–12]. Despite the dramatic reduction of morbidity and mortality of HIV-infection and effective post exposure prophylaxis, anxiety may still be high after occupational exposure [13–15]. Hence, our aim was to investigate anxiety at the time of reporting occupational exposure. In order to measure anxiety in health care workers (HCWs) reporting occupational exposures to potentially contaminated body fluids, we enrolled 55 HCWs in a prospective study. Percutaneous and mucous membrane exposures were most frequent. 27% of study participants estimated their risk of HIV-infection as above 1%. Personality bound anxiety was not high, but acute anxiety showed a high variability. In a multiple regression model high personality bound anxiety, lower age and being a HCW other than physician independently predicted higher acute anxiety scores. No HIV or hepatitis C virus infection occurred. HCWs encounter significant anxiety after occupational exposure to potentially contaminated body fluids despite the possibility of potent post exposure prophylaxis.


Patients and methods
In line with Swiss National Guidelines, the University Hospital of Basel, Switzerland, has exactly defined procedures for occupational exposure to potentially HIVcontaminated blood or other body fluids.These are in close agreement with the CDC guidelines [1].
HCWs consulting the occupational health service following occupational exposure were asked to participate in the study.HCWs seen at the division of emergency medicine when the occupational health service was closed (eg.at night), did not participate.The study was conducted during a six month period (June-December 2000).Ethical committee approval was obtained for this study and HCWs gave their written informed consent.Serological data confirming HIV and/or hepatitis C virus seronegativity were collected up to 9 months later.
Data were collected prospectively using questionnaires filled in by the nursing staff.HCWs were asked to estimate their risk of HIV-transmission in their present situation (scale: <1%, 1-5%, >5%).Anxiety tests were completed prior to the knowledge of the HIV-test result in the source patient as HIV-testing usually lasted 90-120 minutes.
State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI).All HCWs were asked to fill in the STAI [16].The STAI assesses environment dependent anxiety influenced by various psychic processes.We used the validated German version with two scales.State anxiety is an emotional state characterised by tension, worry, nervousness, and fear of impending events, varying in time and depending on the situation.Trait anxiety is a relatively stable property of an individual, associated with the tendency to interpret a situation as harmful.State and trait values are generated by 20 questions with answers rated from 1-4.The normal values of the inventory were derived in 1977 from a reference population of 2385 subjects [16].
Statistical analysis.We used the Mann-Whitney test for differences of scores between different subgroups.We conducted a stepwise backwards multiple regression to define factors predicting state anxiety.The following factors were included in the model: trait anxiety, gender, age, type of exposure (percutaneous versus others), self-estimated risk of HIV transmission (<1% versus >1%) and occupational group (physician versus others).* Health care workers were asked to assess the risk for HIV transmission in their present situation.
Table 1 Demographics of health care workers (HCWs), description of exposures, and self-perceived HIV transmission risk by HCWs (n = 55).
In the 6-month study period 129 HCWs consulted the occupational health service (n = 57) or the emergency division (n = 72) after occupational exposure.Of the 57 HCWs, 55 participated in the study; two HCWs refused without giving a specific reason.Most participants belonged to the nursing staff (n = 27), followed by physicians (n = 12) (table 1).Time between exposure and consultation varied between less than 5 minutes and up to 6 days with a median of 90 minutes 8 1452 (range).
The most frequent type of exposure was percutaneous (73%) and most of these percutaneous injuries were deep (n = 27) (table 1).In 21 cases (52%) of percutaneous exposure the object which led to the injury was contaminated with visible blood (table 1).Further details about exposures and perceived risk are given in table 1.In 51 cases the source patient was known, in four cases unknown.Though HIV-testing was performed immediately, serology results of source patients were known to physicians and HCW only after completion of the questionnaire.Beforehand, one source patient was known to be HIV-infected and another hepatitis C virus infected.
Measures of trait anxiety levels are shown in table 2. The mean levels of trait anxiety of men and women were below the mean levels of the reference population.Average state anxiety scores of men showed similar levels compared to reference scores of men in the reference population, whereas state anxiety scores of women showed significantly higher levels compared to reference scores (table 2).
Men experienced significantly lower levels of state anxiety than women (p = 0.04).Physicians had significantly lower state anxiety levels than other HCWs (Mann-Whitney, p = 0.01) (table 2).HCWs with a low (<1%) self-perceived HIV transmission risk tended to have lower state anxiety levels than those HCWs, who considered their risk to be higher (p = 0.09).HCWs with percutaneous exposures with or without deep injuries did not demonstrate higher state anxiety.In the two cases where HIV or hepatitis C virus infection was known beforehand, state anxiety was not particularly high.Stepwise multiple regression showed that higher trait anxiety, younger age and occupational groups other than physician independently and significantly predicted higher state anxiety In this prospective study analysing anxiety of HCWs consulting the occupational health service after exposures to potentially HIV-contaminated material, the main findings were that (1) acute anxiety levels showed a high variability and that (2) an anxious personality, occupational group other than physician, and lower age independently predicted higher acute anxiety.
In 1991, Cockcroft et al. using a 10 cm visual analogue scale found only a modest variability in anxiety in 100 HCWs reporting accidental exposures [12].This is in contrast to the high variability we found in our study.This difference may be due to the different tests used to assess anxiety.It may well be that measuring both acute state anxiety and personality bound trait anxiety enabled a more in depth analysis than a visual analogue scale.
Not unexpectedly, higher trait anxiety predicted higher state anxiety.Our findings are in accordance with the STAI definition and indicate that this test is a very good tool for measuring relevant aspects of anxiety in such a situation [16].Interestingly, the measured mean trait anxiety of our study population was lower than that of the reference population [16].This result is important since it shows that HCWs who report occupational exposures should per se not be judged as overanxious.
Physicians demonstrated less acute anxiety (table 3).The type of exposure, gender and selfperceived risk for HIV transmission did not contribute to the model.In six situations (11%) post exposure prophylaxis was recommended and started.In 41 cases (75%) a post exposure prophylaxis was not recommended.In the eight remaining HCWs (14%) the physician offered a post exposure prophylaxis, which was declined by all.Serological testing performed within the next 9 months demonstrated that no HIV and no HCV transmission occurred.Experience and knowledge as well as more mature self-reflection on life in older individuals may also explain why younger subjects were found to be more anxious in our study.Knowledge, however, was not assessed in this study and, due to the small numbers, perceived risk of transmission could not be correlated with different occupational groups.
In the univariate analysis we could confirm the finding of Cockcroft et al., that female gender was associated with higher anxiety levels.This is in line with studies reporting higher anxiety levels in women in different settings [17][18][19].However, gender did not turn out to be an independent factor predicting anxiety.Our results indicate that the association between gender and state anxiety was confounded by occupational group and trait anxiety.
The type of exposure is an important risk factor for accidental HIV transmission [7][8].We found no association for acute anxiety with this risk factor.This may demonstrate that detailed knowledge about this risk factor is not prevalent among HCWs.In the same way, the self-perceived HIV transmission risk tended to predict the level of anxiety.There was a remarkable variance in time between exposure and the consultation at the occupational health service.We could not find a statis-tically significant difference in state anxiety between HCWs reporting an occupational exposure earlier or later.It must, however, be mentioned, that this analysis was limited by the small number of HCWs reporting exposures after more than 8 hours (n = 6).Possibly, in a larger population other factors, e.g.self-perceived risk for HIV transmission, would also have been significantly associated with different anxiety levels.
To the best of our knowledge this study is the first to prospectively examine anxiety when reporting occupational exposures to potentially contaminated material in the era of potent antiretroviral therapy.Many HCWs suffer from anxiety after occupational exposures.Hence, anxiety should be a central issue in counselling directly after an occupational exposure and during further follow up.Whether such measures improve counselling of HCWs needs to be analysed in further studies.

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percutaneous exposures device prior in source patient's artery or vein
* Scores of the reference population; men: n = 1107, mean score 36.8 8 9.8; women: n = 1278, mean score 38.1 8 10.3.*** p-values were calculated by Mann-Whitney test comparing the two subgroups.

Table 3
[5][6]sionthan other occupational groups.Better knowledge about HIV and risk of transmission may possibly explain this finding.This in turn may indicate that educational efforts should be made to improve knowledge and alleviate anxiety of HCWs involved in the care of HIV infected patients[5][6]. *