The Association of Workplace Exposures on Quality of Life in Small and Medium Enterprises Workers: A Cross-Sectional Study in Four ASEAN Countries

Abstract

Quality of life is associated with several factors, including personal living styles and working conditions. This article aims to investigate the factors associated with quality of life among small and medium enterprises (SME) workers in 4 countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), namely Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam. A total of 2014 workers from food and textile industries were asked to answer a questionnaire about their sociodemographic characteristics, working environment and conditions, and quality of life. Results from showed that lifestyle (ie, alcohol intake and exercising), working characteristics (ie, shift work, working hours, and working days) and workplace conditions were associated with SME workers' quality of life (ie, physical, psychological, social, and environmental domain). Among the 16 types of workplace conditions, "sitting on the chair" and "slippery floor" most affect their quality of life . It is important for these variables to be taken into account in promoting workers' well-being and quality of life.

Work-Related Psychosocial Stress in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises: An Integrative Review

“…Four studies from Japan [ 62 , 64 , 65 , 66 ] seemed to use data from the same survey but examined different outcomes. No studies from Africa or South America met our inclusion criteria, and four studies were transnational [ 61 , 75 , 76 , 77 ].…”

“…The work characteristics ‘working environment’ and ‘new forms of work’ have received less attention. Only three studies measured physiochemical factors: ‘lighting’ was measured by two studies [ 29 , 75 ], ‘climate’ was measured only by Isahak et al [ 75 ]. Rhee et al [ 76 ] assessed the variables ”hazardous work condition” and “handling of hazardous materials”.…”

“…Three studies investigated physical factors: “physical occupational activity” [ 84 ], “poor physical working conditions” [ 90 ] and “heavy physical work, repetitive activities, forced postures and risks of falls” [ 75 ]. The factor ‘workplace and information structure’ was only studied by Díaz-Chao et al [ 29 ] (“workspace”).…”

“…The characteristics ‘new forms of work’ was taken into account by eight studies. Job insecurity was measured by five studies [ 29 , 63 , 67 , 75 , 91 ]. Flexible work hours and work-life-balance was taken into account by three studies [ 29 , 59 , 92 ].…”

Evaluating Quality of Work Life as Base of Working Condition Improvement Based on Participatory Ergonomic: Case Study on Workers in Small Industry of Gamelan XYZ at Bali, Indonesia

“…In this study, the results of the quality of life measurements can be taken as the consideration in redesigning work facilities, adjusting workload and employee work performance, evaluating employee and company productivity. In addition to physical, psychological, social and environmental factors, other in-line research on quality of life has been reported that quality of life can be influenced by lifestyle, work characteristics and workplace conditions particularly in workers in the food and textile industries [18], socio-demographic factors, job characteristics, individual characteristics and lifestyle [19]. Coverage in the quality of life assessment requires a more holistic instrument in order to respond to the various needs of respondents.…”