OPEN ACCESS
Luis Möckel
1,6,
* , Christina Arnold
1
, Tobias May
1
, Leona Maaß
1
,
Sanaz Sohrabizadeh
2,3
, Thomas Hofmann
4
, Christina Möckel
1,5
Twelve-month prevalence of injury
due to an occupational accident in
pre-hospital Emergency Medical
Services staf: Data from the EMS
Health Study
ABSTRACT
Background: Pre-hospital emergency medical services (EMS) staf are at a high risk of occupational
injuries. Therefore, this analysis aimed to calculate the 12-month prevalence of injuries due to
occupational accidents and identify the associated factors in German pre-hospital EMS staf.
Methods: We analyzed data from a cross-sectional survey to calculate the 12-month prevalence and
the 95% confdence interval (95% CI) of an injury due to an occupational accident. In addition, the
variables associated with these injuries were identifed by multivariable logistics regression analysis
and by calculating adjusted odds ratios (AORs) with 95% CI using JASP sofware.
Results: A total of 2,307 study participants were included in the analysis. The 12-month prevalence
of an injury due to an occupational accident was 15.61% (95% CI: 14.15%; 17.15%). The presence of
lower back pain or chronic back pain (AOR: 1.65 [95% CI: 1.24; 2,20]; p ≤ 0.001), allergies other than
allergic asthma (AOR: 1.42 [95% CI: 1.09; 1.86]; p = 0.009), and osteoarthritis (AOR: 1.85 [95% CI:
1.03; 3.32]; p = 0.039) in the previous 12 months, which are associated with an injury due to an
occupational accident, were statistically signifcant. In addition, participants who were working in
rural areas indicated lower odds compared to those working in metropolitan areas (AOR: 0.62 [95%
CI: 0.43; 0.90]; p ≤ 0.001).
Conclusion: This analysis indicates a high 12-month prevalence and mainly health-related factors
associated with injuries due to occupational accidents being statistically signifcant in the
participating German pre-hospital EMS staf.
Keywords: prevalence of injury, occupational risk, paramedics, health status, EMS
1
HSD Hochschule Döpfer GmbH,
University of Applied Sciences, Cologne,
Germany
2
Air Quality and Climate Change Research
Center, Shahid Beheshti University of
Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
3
Department of Health in Disasters and
Emergencies, School of Public Health
and Safety, Shahid Beheshti University
of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
4
University of Bremen, Faculty of Human
and Health Science, Bremen, Germany
5
Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Jülich,
Germany
6
IU Internationale Hochschule GmbH,
University of Applied Sciences,
Düsseldorf, Germany
*Email: luis.moeckel@iu.org
Orcid ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-
1338-8433
Cite this article as: Möckel L, Arnold C, May T, Maaß L, Sohrabizadeh S, Hofmann T, Möckel C.
Twelve-month prevalence of injury due to an occupational accident in pre-hospital Emergency
Medical Services staf: Data from the EMS Health Study. Journal of Emergency Medicine,
Trauma & Acute Care. 2022;2022(5):37 https://doi.org/10.5339/jemtac.2022.37
https://doi.org/10.5339/jemtac.2022.37
Submitted: 28 July 2022
Accepted: 07 September 2022
© 2022 Möckel, Arnold, May, Maaß,
Sohrabizadeh, Hofmann, Möckel,
licensee HBKU Press. This is an
open access article distributed
under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution license CC BY
4.0, which permits unrestricted use,
distribution and reproduction in any
medium, provided the original work
is properly cited.
Research paper