Abstract:
The objective of this study was to determine incidence rate and related factors of occupational injuries among waste collectors of regional hospitals in the central zone of Thailand. The design of this study is a cross-sectional descriptive study. All waste collectors from 7 regional hospitals in central of Thailand were interviewed during January 1st December 31st, 2015. Four hundred and ninety-eight waste collectors of 7 regional hospitals were included in this study. Data and related factors of occupational injuries were analyzed by using chi-square test , Fishers Exact test and Independent t-test. The results showed that the incidence rate of occupational injuries is quite high. Occupational injuries were associated with inadequate or not using personal protective equipment. There were 76 cases of occupational injuries from 498 participants. The cumulative incidence and incidence rate were 15.3% and 2.49 / 100 persons-month. Feet and legs were the most incidence sites of occupational injuries. mild injury of waste collectors (follow by ILO classification) were 73.6%, Inflammatory wound were 6.5%. Other Factors associated with occupational injuries are age (p-value = 0.049) increasing seniority (p-value = 0.005), duration of working month in 2015 (p-value = 0.006), not using of the personal protective equipment such as glove (p-value = 0.008), boots (p-value = 0.018), face mask (p-value = 0.001), apron (p-value = 0.005) and performance series uniform (PPE) (p-value = 0.002).The inadequate allocation of personal protective equipment was associated with occupational injuries (p-value = 0.002). The author recommend that giving priority to occupational health, waste collectors in this population, would be benefit to them and may minimize occupational injuries. The activities should be screening for health-related problem and providing adequate PPE.