Effectiveness of measures to prevent needlestick injuries among ...

4 Intervention program evaluation
4 Intervention program evaluation
4.1 Methods
4.1.1 Screening the literature
More than 1,000 references from the searches which we conducted had to be
screened individually due to the lack of specific key words in the PubMed system. The
preliminary screening was based on the title, abstract and key words of each article,
and aimed to identify a subset of literature for more detailed review. It also resulted in
the identification of articles that required further screening (e.g. due to lack of an
abstract) to determine usefulness. Reasons for exclusion after the preliminary screening
were:
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publication language not English, German or French;
inappropriate inclusion (e.g. author’s name was "Sharps" and no relation to study
issue);
non-occupational setting, and/or targeted population was not HCW
data were collected in a developing country (thought to have much different risks
and resources than developed nations);
focus was on product development rather than evaluation of a specific product or
intervention program;
commentary/editorial; call for/suggested changes in safety standards or
regulations; practice guidelines; call for information; recommendation for
increased surveillance for occupational sharps injuries;
case report/case series;
discussed only institutional liability or other legal issues;
focus was on post exposure prophylaxis (PEP), seroconversion, and/or treatment;
focus was on specific diseases such as HBV, HCV, HIV transmission, not restricted
to transmission via NSI.
Report „Needlestick injuries“ 31