Questionnaires are frequently used in quantitative marketing research and social research. A questionnaire is a series of questions asked to individuals to obtain statistically useful information about a given topic. When properly constructed and responsibly administered, questionnaires become a vital instrument by which statements can be made about specific groups or people or entire populations. They are a valuable method of collecting a wide range of information from a large number of individuals, often referred to as respondents. Adequate questionnaire construction is critical to the success of a survey. Appropriate questions, correct ordering of questions, correct scaling, or good questionnaire format can make the survey worthwhile, as it may accurately reflect the views and opinions of the participants. A useful method for checking a questionnaire and making sure it is accurately capturing the intended information is to pretest among a smaller subset of target respondents.

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Chennai is the fourth largest metropolitan city in India. Around 10,000 conservancy workers of the Chennai Corporation handle about 4500 to 5200 tons of solid wastes per day. These workers are exposed to a lot of environmental and occupational hazards affecting the respiratory system. This paper presents the results of pulmonary function assessment in 178 conservancy workers (100 sweepers & 78 loaders) of the Chennai Corporation. Detailed medical and occupational history was obtained and clinical examination was performed after obtaining informed consent. Pulmonary functions (forced vital capacity [FVC], forced expiratory volume in 1 second [FEV1] and peak expiratory flow rate [PEFR]) were measured using a portable spirometer. Since normal pulmonary function values for healthy non-smoking South Indian adults are available through previously published studies, the pulmonary function test (PFT) values from the study group were compared with the predicted values after corrections for age and anthropometry. The pulmonary functions of the conservancy workers were significantly lower than their predicted values. Moreover, the pulmonary functions declined with increasing years of working. Among both the groups of conservancy workers, the pulmonary functions were significantly lower in sweepers than loaders (P<0.01). This study has generated lung function data of the Chennai Corporation conservancy workers that can aid the concerned authorities to implement specific interventions to reduce the exposure and improve the health status of the workers.

Chennai is the fourth largest metropolitan city in India. Around 10,000 conservancy workers of the Chennai Corporation handle about 4500 to 5200 tons of solid wastes per day. These workers are exposed to a lot of environmental and occupational hazards affecting the respiratory system. This paper presents the results of pulmonary function assessment in 178 conservancy workers (100 sweepers & 78 loaders) of the Chennai Corporation. Detailed medical and occupational history was obtained and clinical examination was performed after obtaining informed consent. Pulmonary functions (forced vital capacity [FVC], forced expiratory volume in 1 second [FEV1] and peak expiratory flow rate [PEFR]) were measured using a portable spirometer. Since normal pulmonary function values for healthy non-smoking South Indian adults are available through previously published studies, the pulmonary function test (PFT) values from the study group were compared with the predicted values after corrections for age and anthropometry. The pulmonary functions of the conservancy workers were significantly lower than their predicted values. Moreover, the pulmonary functions declined with increasing years of working. Among both the groups of conservancy workers, the pulmonary functions were significantly lower in sweepers than loaders (P<0.01). This study has generated lung function data of the Chennai Corporation conservancy workers that can aid the concerned authorities to implement specific interventions to reduce the exposure and improve the health status of the workers.

No abstract