A self-report questionnaire to detect hand dermatitis in nurses

Abstract

Abstract Background Hand dermatitis is highly prevalent among nurses due to their frequent exposure to wet work. Providing cost-effective dermatological health surveillance for this occupational group presents a challenge to health service providers. Aims To ascertain the predictive value of nurses’ self-assessment of whether they had current hand dermatitis using a screening questionnaire when compared with the assessment made by a dermatologist of the nurses’ hand photographs. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional study comparing the self-report decision made by student and intensive care nurses using a single hand dermatitis screening question with the clinical assessment of their hand photographs made by dermatologists using a standardized photographic guide. Results We analysed data collected at study baseline (n = 1599). The results showed that the screening question had a high negative predictive value (91%; 95% CI 89–93), but a low positive predictive value (39%; 95% CI 34–45). It demonstrated acceptable accuracy in distinguishing those with and without the disease (area under the receiver operator curve = 0.7) and had a high specificity (86%; 95% CI 84–88) but a sensitivity of only 52% (95% CI 46–59) in identifying hand dermatitis. Conclusions We found that nurses were able to accurately self-assess themselves as not having any signs of hand dermatitis. By contrast, they were less able to accurately self-assess positive cases suggesting under-recognition of early disease. We propose that a questionnaire containing a single hand dermatitis screening question should be considered as a tool for screening out clear cases as part of a workplace health surveillance programme for detecting hand dermatitis.