| Mulugeta T. Abraha (muluta.tamene@gmail.com) |
| School of Public Health, Africa Medical College, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia |
| November, 2016 |
| Yes |
Abstract |
Background: Occupational hazards are becoming the major concern for public health. Occupational health awareness in Ethiopia is not well informed. And this resulted in extensively high prevalence of occupational respiratory symptoms. This research aimed to assess occupational respiratory health symptoms and associated factors among street sweepers in Addis Ababa. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from January 2016 to March 2016 using random sampling to select five sub-cities and three wards from each sub-city and univariate analysis, logistic regression analysis was performed to select all the independent variables with 95% Confidence Interval (CI) and p <0.05. Epinfo version 3.5.1 and SPSS Version 20 were used for data entry and analysis. Results: The overall prevalence of respiratory symptoms among street sweepers was 68.9%, and respiratory symptoms of cough was present in 180 (44.4%), shortness of breath in 137 (33.8%), and with manifestation of eye discomfort in 193 (47.7%), sneezing in 181 (55.3%), and nose irritation in 134 (33.1%) participants. Respiratory symptoms were associated with age of 28-37 years (AOR= 2.65, 95% CI: 1.362, 5.166) and 38-47 years (AOR= 2.051, 95% CI: 1.018, 4.132), past history of emphysema (AOR= 2.53, 95% CI: 1.072, 5.97), and TB (AOR=7.24, 95% CI: 1.584, 3.065). Conclusions: Respiratory symptoms were highly prevalent in street sweepers. We recommend that pre-employment screening, on job training; improving hygienic practices and proper utilization of PPE are necessary tasks in order to maintain the health and safety of workers. |
