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© 2021 MJH Life Sciences™ and Clinical Care Targeted Communications, LLC. all rights reserved.
Researchers in Iran are trying to quantify the headaches associated with personal protective equipment (PPE) among front-line healthcare workers.
According to the results of a cross-sectional study conducted in Iran, headaches caused by personal protective equipment (PPE) are common and reduce the efficiency and performance of hospital staff. The researchers write that the results of the study published in Brain and Behavior emphasize the importance of considering this issue for healthcare workers and providing ways to reduce the risk of headaches.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the daily lives of front-line health workers have undergone tremendous changes, including “wearing special masks and clothes, long hours of intense work in the hospital, separation from their families, and exposure to infections and spreading diseases. Fear of relatives and the risk of death," the author explained.
As the World Health Organization recommends that medical staff working in normal wards use masks and those in COVID-19 wards use masks, gowns and protective covers, there has been an increase in reports of workers-related headache complaints.
PPE-related headaches may be caused by hypoxia, hypercapnia, local pressure on the face or scalp, or other factors; the authors say that previous studies have found that 30% to 80% of people wearing N95 masks report headaches.
In order to better assess the occurrence of PPE-related headaches among healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers conducted a cross-sectional study of personnel in four centers in Tehran, Iran.
All centers accepted COVID-19 patients, and doctors, nurses and other staff participated in the study from April to July 2020. , And the goggles in the COVID-19 ward," the author wrote. All participants used PPE continuously for at least 4 hours.
In addition to completing the questionnaire, participants also recorded their blood oxygen saturation and heart rate with a pulse oximeter 4 hours before and after using PPE, or whether they reported shortness of breath or headache.
The study included a total of 243 frontline health workers; their average (SD) age was 36 (8) years, and 75% of workers were women.
Among patients with PPE-related headaches, 44.3% had a history of headaches, including migraine and tension-type headaches. However, this factor is not related to headaches associated with PPE. The researchers said that by contrast, 56% of the participants "have no history of reported headaches and are considered new onset of PPE-related headaches."
They hypothesized that headaches associated with PPE may be due to local compression of pain-sensitive structures, pre-existing headache worsening or physiological changes in heart rate or breathing rate, and anxiety about wearing the device.
“Designing a new type of breathing device that eliminates headache risk factors can improve mask tolerance, thereby improving PPE compliance and performance of medical staff,” the authors concluded.
Jafari E, Togha M, Kazemizadeh H, etc. Assessment of headaches related to personal protective equipment during COVID-19. Brain behavior. Published online on November 13, 2021. doi:10.1002/brb3.2435