Health Status of Waste Management Workers in Municipality of Nonthaburi Province

Abstract

Waste management workers must have been encountering with the impurities for a long period, inevitably affected their health and exposed to risk of hazards mixed in community waste including chemical factors, physical factors, biological factors through receiving direct contact from infectious agents and ergonomic factors from inappropriate working conditions such as heavy lifting, repetitive tasks over time; lifting, hauling, towing, carrying heavy loads exceed maximum capacity of the human body. This research was a cross-sectional study aiming to assess the health status of waste management workers in municipalities of Nonthaburi Province; and analyzed the relationship between personal characteristics, health behaviors, perceptions of occupational diseases and injuries, and health status both physical and mental dimensions of 282 waste management workers with the response rate of 90.1%. Descriptive statistics, Chi-square test and Pearson’s correlation coefficient were used for data analysis. It was found that the samples had health status in overall physical and mental dimensions below criteria at 50 (Norm-based T score), at 82.3% and 72.4% respectively. Having exercise was significantly related to the level of health status in overall physical dimension; and alcohol consumption was associated with health status in overall mental dimension. The frequency of work-related illness was negatively correlated to the health status in overall mental dimension. Frequency of occupational accident, perceived risk of occupational diseases and injuries was negatively correlated with both physical and mental dimensions of health status at statistically significant level (p<0.05). Administrators of local administrative organizations should regulate occupational safety and health policies to reduce the rate of occupational accidents and injuries by promoting knowledge and providing personal protective equipment, supporting health in form of funding such as welfare fund or saving fund, to continuously improve the health status of waste management workers.