병원근무자 유니폼에 의한 병원 내 감염에 대한 체계적 문헌고찰 = The Association of Health Care Workers` Uniforms and Health Care-associated Infection: Systematic Review

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

To identify an associations between health care workers` uniforms and health care-associated infection. Methods: Electronic databases, including Ovid-Medline, the Cochrane Library, CINAHL, EMBASE, KMbase, and KoreaMed, were searched. The search terms included doctor, nurse, health care worker/staff/assistant, clothing, (white) gown, uniform, (neck)tie, and attire. Only papers published in English and Korean were included. Results: 16 studies were selected from 1,900 references screened. All of the studies were non-comparative studies except for one. Four were conducted with doctors, six with nurses, one with health care workers including physiotherapists and one for medical staff plus visitors in a neonatal intensive care unit. Doctors more frequently changed their uniforms than neckties; therefore, the degree of contamination was more serious in neckties. The cuff zone was more likely to be heavily contaminated than other areas of long-sleeve gowns. Coats become contaminated quickly once worn, and colony counts reached a similar level within the first few hours after wearing them. Wearing a plastic apron or protective clothing did not prevent the bacterial contamination of nurses` uniforms, and the best way to decrease the contamination was changing to newly laundered uniforms before starting every duty. Conclusion: Healthcare workers` uniforms are a potential source of health care-associated infection although there was no robust evidence. The government must establish standards for laundering of uniforms or a requirement for institutions to provide a laundering service for healthcare workers` uniforms.