Knowledge, Attitudes, Practices, and Perceptions of Occupational Health and Safety Among Healthcare Workers at a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital in Jharkhand, India: A Cross-Sectional Study.

@article{kumari2026knowledge,
  title = {{Knowledge, Attitudes, Practices, and Perceptions of Occupational Health and Safety Among Healthcare Workers at a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital in Jharkhand, India: A Cross-Sectional Study.}},
  author = {Roma Kumari and Bhoopendra Singh and Anit Kujur},
  journal = {Cureus},
  year = {2026},
  month = sep,
  doi = {10.7759/cureus.116767},
  url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42921054},
  note = {CC BY},
}

TY  - JOUR
TI  - Knowledge, Attitudes, Practices, and Perceptions of Occupational Health and Safety Among Healthcare Workers at a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital in Jharkhand, India: A Cross-Sectional Study.
AU  - Roma Kumari
AU  - Bhoopendra Singh
AU  - Anit Kujur
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/23
JO  - Cureus
DO  - 10.7759/cureus.116767
UR  - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42921054
AB  - Background Healthcare workers encounter biological, chemical, physical, ergonomic, and psychosocial hazards, yet evidence from heterogeneous hospital workforces in eastern India remains limited. This study evaluated occupational health and safety knowledge, attitudes, practices, and perceptions; quantified item-matched knowledge-practice gaps; and assessed self-reported hepatitis B vaccination uptake among healthcare workers at a tertiary care teaching hospital in Jharkhand. Materials and methods A hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted from April 1 to June 30, 2026. Using stratified random sampling with equal allocation, 400 participants were enrolled: 100 nurses, 100 technician/paramedical staff, 100 housekeeping staff, and 100 ward attendants. An investigator-developed bilingual 32-item questionnaire, pilot-tested among 40 healthcare workers, measured knowledge (eight Yes/No items), attitude (five items), practice (five items, including a binary hepatitis B vaccination item), and perception (four items). Domain scores were converted to percentages and categorised using prespecified cutoffs. Categorical outcomes were compared using chi-square or exact tests, and four directly matched knowledge-practice pairs were evaluated using exact McNemar tests. Results The mean knowledge, attitude, practice, and perception percentages were 64.6%, 59.9%, 55.9%, and 53.9%, respectively. Poor practice was observed in 209 participants (52.2%; 95% CI, 47.4%-57.1%), unfavourable perception in 235 (58.8%; 95% CI, 53.9%-63.5%), and an overall poor/inadequate occupational health and safety profile in 227 (56.8%; 95% CI, 51.9%-61.5%). Knowledge-practice gaps were largest for occupational injury reporting (161/400, 40.2%), followed by personal protective equipment use (151/400, 37.8%); all four paired comparisons were significant (p<0.001). Recent safety training was associated with knowledge (p=0.002) and with attitude, practice, perception, and overall category (all p<0.001). Self-reported hepatitis B vaccination uptake was 41.5% (95% CI, 36.8%-46.4%). Conclusion The findings indicate an important gap between occupational safety knowledge and consistently reported safe practice, particularly for injury reporting, personal protective equipment use, hand hygiene, and biomedical waste segregation. Competency-based training, non-punitive exposure reporting, routine workplace audits, and accessible hepatitis B vaccination should prioritise support and outsourced workers while remaining available to all occupational groups.
SN  - 2168-8184
ER  -