Determinants of Occupational Injury among Building Construction Employees in Southeastern Ethiopia

Abstract

Introduction: An occupational injury is the primary cause of workplace absenteeism, disability, retirement, mutilation, and mortality. Therefore, injuries in the workplace pose major public health and developmental problems especially in developing countries. Therefore, the present study identified the prevalence of injury and its determinants among building construction employees in Robe town, Ethiopia.
 Methods: An institutional-based cross-sectional study was conducted among building construction employees in Robe town from March 01-25/2017. A simple random sampling technique was used to select the study participants. The data was entered into EPiData 3.1and analysed by using SPSS version 20 software. Face to face interview was conducted on 402 respondents using structured and pretested questionnaire. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to identify the effect of explanatory variables on injuries.
 Results: The overall prevalence of injury among building construction employees was 39.2% [95 % CI: (34.4, 44.2)] in the past one year. The three leading causes of injuries were falls from the same level (38.5%), followed by injuries caused by movable or falling object (23.1%), and falls from elevation (13.4%). Being male, use of personal protective equipment, health and safety training, regular supervision and job satisfaction were factors significantly associated with injury.
 Conclusion: This study reported a relatively higher prevalence of injury among building construction workers compared to other studies. Factors such as being male, working without using personal protective equipment, absence of health and safety trainings, lack of regular supervision and job dissatisfaction were associated with significantly higher levels of occupational injury among construction workers. Therefore, employers should focus on providing safety training, promoting use of personal protective equipment during work, regular workplace supervision, and satisfying their employees by creating good work environments and working situations to reduce the rate of occupational injury.

Musculoskeletal Pain and Associated Factors among Building Construction Workers in Southeastern Ethiopia

“…Manual laborer and masonry workers were the most affected working groups. This finding was comparable with a study in Great Britain, Malaysia and Ethiopia [15][16][17].…”

“…In Canada, Finland and the United States, more people are disabled from working as a result of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) -especially back pain than from any other group of diseases [11]. In Jimma town, about forty percent of building construction workers was suffered from back pain, and in Robe town about 4% of construction workers injured due to lifting heavy load [14,15]. In Ethiopia, there is lack of data on work-related musculoskeletal pain in construction workers.…”

The Prevalence of Occupational Injuries and Associated Risk Factors among Workers in Bahir Dar Textile Share Company, Amhara Region, Northwest Ethiopia

“…This finding was in line with the findings of the studies conducted in textile factories of the Amhara region [ 10 ] and textile factories in Northwest Ethiopia [ 11 ]. The difference in the levels of injury might be explained by the fact that female workers are usually assigned in less hazardous sections in textile industries and had different work schedules (the males worked relatively longer hours per day) [ 11 , 32 ].…”

Occupational Contact Dermatitis in Employees of Large-Scale Narcotic Crop Farms of Ethiopia: Prevalence and Risk Factors. A Self-Reported Study Using the Nordic Occupational Skin Questionnaire

“…However, despite the existence of favorable policies and regulations, their execution appears to be lacking. 20 Farm workers in Ethiopia are among the professions with the highest risk of work-related accidents and diseases. 21 They often lack awareness of their rights, as well as employment security.…”