Hand dermatitis among nurses in a newly developing region of Mainland China

Although hand dermatitis (HD) is a common occupational problem for nurses worldwide; few, if any, epidemiological studies of this disease have been conducted in Mainland China. Therefore, we administered a previously validated questionnaire to 306 nurses from a large teaching hospital in Shijiazhuang city, Hebei province. A total of 282 replies were received (92.2%). The 12-month period-prevalence of HD across hospital departments ranged from 14.3% to 23.8%, with an overall rate of 17.7%. Nurses with pre-existing atopic dermatitis were 5.3 times more likely to suffer from HD when compared to nurses without this condition (OR 5.3, 95% CI 2.0-14.2, P = 0.0009). Overall, our study suggests that HD is less common among Chinese hospital nurses when compared to their counterparts around the world. The identification of atopic dermatitis as a significant HD risk factor was, however, consistent with previous research. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.