Abstract:
Background: Globally, poor occupational health and safety results in 271 million work
related injuries, 2 million work-related deaths and 160 million work-related diseases per year.
In developing countries, the risk is 10 to 20 times higher than in developed counties. In
Ethiopia, the epidemiology of work related injuries were not adequately documented.
Objective: To assess occupational health and safety practices at public health facilities in
Wolaita Zone, Southern Nations and Nationality People Region, Ethiopia, 2011.
Methods: A cross-sectional Study was conducted during March15 to April 15, 2011 among
390 health professionals. Semi-structured self administered questionnaire and in depth
interview guide were used for quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection
respectively. For quantitative part of the study all the health professionals from the selected
Woredas were recruited. Data were entered into SPSS version 16. Binary and multiple
logistic regressions were used to estimate the crude and adjusted odds ratios for the
prevalence of injury respectively.
Result: A total of 351 health workers were included in the study and 326(92.9%) of the
health workers were knowledgeable on occupational health and safety measures and
67(19.1%) had history of injury within the past 12 months. Clinical nurse encountered
physical injuries more than any of the professional categories (61%) followed by the
midwives (18%). Health workers working in hospital were 2 times higher to have incidence
of injury as compared with working in health centre (OR=1.90, 95% CI of (1.087, 3.475).
Conclusion and recommendation: More than three fourth of the health workers were
knowledgeable on occupational health and safety. Most of the health workers use personal
protective equipments but shortage of materials is a common problem. Employees should get
training on occupational health and safety and necessary protective materials should be
provided.
