Comparative Cross Sectional Study on Occupational Health Problems among Workers in Floriculture Industry, Holeta, Ethiopia

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Date

2012-05

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Addis Abeba Universty

Abstract

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

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Comparative Cross Sectional Study on Occupational Health

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