TY - JOUR
T1 - Prevalence and incidence of hand eczema in healthcare workers
T2 - protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis
AU - Symanzik, Cara
AU - Yüksel, Yasemin Topal
AU - Christensen, Maria Oberlander
AU - Thyssen, Jacob P
AU - Skudlik, Christoph
AU - John, Swen Malte
AU - Brans, Richard
AU - Agner, Tove
N1 - © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2022. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.
PY - 2022/10/7
Y1 - 2022/10/7
N2 - INTRODUCTION: Healthcare workers (HCWs) constitute a high-risk group for developing occupational hand eczema (HE). The present systematic review and meta-analysis will compile and appraise evidence regarding prevalence and incidence of HE in HCWs.METHODS AND ANALYSIS: Systematic searches will be performed in three electronic literature databases (PubMed/Medline, Web of Science-Core Collection and Embase). Further references will be retrieved by a manual search of included studies' reference lists using snowballing techniques. We will include experimental studies, observational studies, survey-based studies and clinical studies (publications in English, French and German from 2000 onwards) reporting on certified and apprentice HCWs, who actively work in the job. We will look at the following outcomes: Prevalence and incidence of clinically assessed as well as self-reported HE in the style of the Nordic Occupational Skin Questionnaire-2002; HE severity (measured by eg, Hand Eczema Severity Index, Osnabrück Hand Eczema Severity Index, Physician Global Assessment or other validated instruments as well as self-reported or by using undefined categories such as 'mild', 'moderate' or 'severe'); clinically assessed (eg, clinical diagnosis, UK Working Party's diagnostic criteria, Hanifin and Rajka diagnostic criteria for atopic dermatitis (AD)) and self-reported AD. We will assess the risk of bias within studies using detailed criteria according to the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. As we expect heterogeneity in methods and outcomes, we will conduct sensitivity analyses. A narrative synthesis of results instead of a meta-analysis will be done in case that quantitative pooling is not feasible.ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethical approval and patient consent are not required as this work is based on published studies. The results will be published in an international, peer-reviewed journal.PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42022303044.
AB - INTRODUCTION: Healthcare workers (HCWs) constitute a high-risk group for developing occupational hand eczema (HE). The present systematic review and meta-analysis will compile and appraise evidence regarding prevalence and incidence of HE in HCWs.METHODS AND ANALYSIS: Systematic searches will be performed in three electronic literature databases (PubMed/Medline, Web of Science-Core Collection and Embase). Further references will be retrieved by a manual search of included studies' reference lists using snowballing techniques. We will include experimental studies, observational studies, survey-based studies and clinical studies (publications in English, French and German from 2000 onwards) reporting on certified and apprentice HCWs, who actively work in the job. We will look at the following outcomes: Prevalence and incidence of clinically assessed as well as self-reported HE in the style of the Nordic Occupational Skin Questionnaire-2002; HE severity (measured by eg, Hand Eczema Severity Index, Osnabrück Hand Eczema Severity Index, Physician Global Assessment or other validated instruments as well as self-reported or by using undefined categories such as 'mild', 'moderate' or 'severe'); clinically assessed (eg, clinical diagnosis, UK Working Party's diagnostic criteria, Hanifin and Rajka diagnostic criteria for atopic dermatitis (AD)) and self-reported AD. We will assess the risk of bias within studies using detailed criteria according to the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. As we expect heterogeneity in methods and outcomes, we will conduct sensitivity analyses. A narrative synthesis of results instead of a meta-analysis will be done in case that quantitative pooling is not feasible.ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethical approval and patient consent are not required as this work is based on published studies. The results will be published in an international, peer-reviewed journal.PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42022303044.
KW - Dermatitis, Atopic
KW - Eczema/epidemiology
KW - Health Personnel
KW - Humans
KW - Incidence
KW - Meta-Analysis as Topic
KW - Prevalence
KW - Systematic Reviews as Topic
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85139571201&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1136/bmjopen-2022-062194
DO - 10.1136/bmjopen-2022-062194
M3 - Review
C2 - 36207040
SN - 2399-9772
VL - 12
SP - e062194
JO - BMJ Paediatrics Open
JF - BMJ Paediatrics Open
IS - 10
M1 - e062194
ER -