Comparative Cross Sectional Study On Occupational Health Problems Among Workers In Floriculture Industry Holeta Ethiopia

Back ground: - Floriculture is labor intensive industry in which a number of citizens inrnEthiopia rely on it and currently it is on vast expansion over the country. In spite of its creationrnof job opportunity it imposes various health challenges on the workers.rnObjectives: the specific objectives of this study are to assess the magnitude and determinants ofrncommon illness symptoms encountered by the workers of floriculture industry.rnMethods: - Mixed method approach; using Comparative cross sectional quantitative study onrn958 randomly selected respondents of floriculture workers and general population; a qualitativernstudy on purposively selected respondents from floriculture workers were conducted to obtainrnresult on illness symptoms encountered in the past 12 months prior to data collection andrnassociated factors. The data was collected using a pre-tested and structured questionnaire for thernquantitative study and qualitative data was obtained from workers of floriculture through indepthrninterview and focus group discussion with predesigned interview guide.rnResults: - A total of 958 respondents with a response rate of 98.4% were included in this study.rnThe prevalence of respiratory and skin disorder illness symptom were 462 (75.5%) and 232rn(48.6%) versus 178(37%) and 68 (14.1%) for floriculture workers and general populationrnrespectively. Awareness of workers on risks of working in floriculture has association withrnreported respiratory and skin disorder illness symptom as those who were not aware about risksrnwere less likely to report illness symptom. Use of personal protective equipment and pre trainingrndoesn’t show significant association with illness symptom of workers. Majority of respondentsrndidn’t wear full personal PPE since only less than 30% of workers who have reported havingrnPPE have boots, facemask and goggles. In the qualitative result respondents mentioned that therntype of pre-training that is being provided to workers focuses on safety of flowers rather thanrnhow workers keep themselves away from the potential risks.rnConclusions and recommendations: - According to these study respondents of floriculturernworkers have reported high prevalence of developing illness symptom in the past 12 months ofrntime prior to data collection. Thus employers’ should give training on protection on workersrnfrom the potential hazard and fulfill personal protective equipments to workers.

Get Full Work

Report copyright infringement or plagiarism