Occupational Nosocomial Infections among Healthcare Workers in a Philippine Private Hospital: Incidence and Infection-Prevention Risk Factors

Nosocomial infections among healthcare workers (HCWs) remain under-documented in low-and middleincome countries, despite their centrality to workforce safety and health-system resilience.This analytic crosssectional study estimated the incidence of nosocomial infection and examined modifiable infection-prevention risk factors among 68 HCWs in ancillary departments of a private tertiary hospital in Iligan City, Philippines.Selfadministered questionnaires captured sociodemographic characteristics, comorbidities, hand hygiene compliance, personal protective equipment (PPE) use, and physiciandiagnosed nosocomial infection in the preceding 12 months.Fourteen HCWs (20.6%) reported at least one nosocomial infection.Infection prevalence was higher among those with comorbidities (60.0%), suboptimal hand hygiene (50.0%), and inconsistent PPE use (35.0%) than among their counterparts.In multivariable logistic regression adjusting for age and sex, comorbidity (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 15.2, 95% CI [2.3, 102.1]), suboptimal hand hygiene (aOR = 10.9, 95% CI [2.9, 40.7]), and inconsistent PPE use (aOR = 3.7, 95% CI [1.1, 13.0]) were independently associated with infection.Findings underscore the vulnerability of HCWs in ancillary services and highlight the need for robust, multimodal infection-prevention strategies that integrate behavioral, organizational, and occupational-health interventions.