An assessment of the knowledge, attitudes and practices about the prevention of occupational hazards and utilization of safety measures among meat workers in a city of Haryana state of India

Dr(Col) Rajendra Kumar; Col(Dr) KC Verma; Neetika

Volume : VI, Issue : III, March - 2016

An assessment of the knowledge, attitudes and practices about the prevention of occupational hazards and utilization of safety measures among meat workers in a city of Haryana state of India

Dr Col Rajendra Kumar, Col Dr Kc Verma, Neetika

Abstract :

Objective: To assess the knowledge, attitude and practices among meat workers about occupational hazards in a city of Haryana, India. Methods: This was a cross–sectional descriptive design. The population comprised of meat workers who are actively involved in meat selling in the city of Faridabad, Haryana, India. Convenient sampling technique was used in selection of the subjects. A face to face interview was conducted for the collection of information. Results: A total of 293 meat workers were interviewed. About one fourth (26.4%) of the respondents were in the age group of 41–45 years. The knowledge about occupational hazards scores was higher for physical hazards than chemical, muscular, psychosocial and safety hazards. The meat workers had good score for practices about occupational hazards before starting the work than during work and after the work. The mean scores about attitude towards the occupational hazards were good among the respondents. There was significant relationship between knowledge and practice score (r=0.69, p= 0.0001) as well as practice and attitude scores (r = 0.88, p=0.0001). There was significant positive correlation between knowledge and attitude scores. Conclusion: The health personnel’s responsibilities towards prevention and control of occupational hazards are inadequate. There is therefore, the need of occupational safety regulations and enforcement across all animal related occupations and need for occupational health taskforce to ensure compliance from the health personnel. Also, there is a substantial need for inter–disciplinary collaborative research and/or shå of information between workers, health agencies and policy makers for healthy workforce.