Determinants of knowledge associated with occupational hazards and perceived health problems among dye workers in Abeokuta, Nigeria

Olusegun Emmanuel Thomas; Adeyinka Adefolarin; Godson Ana; Georgina Odaibo

doi:10.4081/jphia.2023.1985

Determinants of knowledge associated with occupational hazards and perceived health problems among dye workers in Abeokuta, Nigeria

J Public Health Afr. 2023 Apr 21;14(6):1985. doi: 10.4081/jphia.2023.1985. eCollection 2023 Jun 21.

Authors

Olusegun Emmanuel Thomas¹, Adeyinka Adefolarin², Godson Ana³, Georgina Odaibo⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy.
² Department of Health Promotion and Education, Faculty of Public Health.
³ Department of Environmental Health Science, Faculty of Public Health.
⁴ Department of Virology, Faculty of Basic Medical Sciences, University of Ibadan, Nigeria.

Abstract

Background: Identification of potential hazards, their adverse health effects, and predisposing factors in the workplace are critical to improving safety. The objective of the study was to assess the knowledge of occupational hazards, the prevalence of perceived health problems and their predictors among textile dye workers in Abeokuta Nigeria who work in unsupervised settings.

Materials and methods: In this cross-sectional study, data were collected from 199 participants using a validated semi-structured interviewer-administered questionnaire. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to determine the predictors of knowledge while Pearson Chi-square was employed to test the association between perceived health problems, sociodemographics and work environment characteristics.

Results: The mean age of the respondents was 40 (SD=12) years with an average work experience of 19 years. The majority of respondents 139 (69.8%) had lower than average scores on knowledge of 25 questions on chemical hazards. There was no correlation between knowledge score and work experience (P=0.492) or age (P=0.462) but the knowledge was significantly associated with exposure score (P=0.004), gender (P=0.002) and adherence to instructions on chemicals usage (P=0.041) after adjusting for safe practice. The most frequent health problems among the dye workers were respiratory disorders (53.8%), allergies (51.8%), and skin disorders (24.1%). Airborne gaseous pollutants from the mixing of chemicals were associated with allergies (P=0.045), circulatory (P=0.02) and skin disorders (P=0.049) while air-borne textile fiber/dye particles could predict allergies (P=0.028).

Conclusions: Findings revealed that exposure, gender and adherence to instruction labels on dye/chemical containers could determine knowledge of chemical hazards while physical work environment characteristics could determine health problems.

Keywords: chemical hazards; occupational safety; personal protective equipment; work environment characteristics; work-related diseases.

Grants and funding

Funding: this research was supported by the Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA). CARTA is jointly led by the African Population and Health Research Center and the University of the Witwatersrand and funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York (Grant No--B 8606.R02), Sida (Grant No:54100113), the DELTAS Africa Initiative (Grant No: 107768/Z/15/Z) and Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD).