Occupational injuries among building construction workers in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
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RESEARCH
Open Access
Occupational injuries among building construction workers in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Sebsibe Tadesse1* and Dagnachew Israel2
Abstract Background: Occupational injuries can pose direct costs, like suffering, loss of employment, disability and loss of productivity, and indirect costs on families and society. However, there is a dearth of studies clarifying the situation in most of Subsaharan African countries, like Ethiopia. The present study determined the prevalence of injury and associated factors among building construction employees in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Methods: An institutional-based cross-sectional study was conducted among building construction employees in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from February to April 2015. Multi-stages sampling followed by simple random sampling techniques was used to select the study participants. The sample size of the study was 544. A pre-tested and structured questionnaire was used to collect data. Multivariable analyses were employed to see the effect of explanatory variables on injury. Results: The prevalence of injury among building construction employees was reported to be 38.3 % [95 % CI: (33.9, 42.7)] in the past 1 year. Use of personal protective equipments, work experience, khat chewing were factors significantly associated with injury. Conclusion: This is among the few studies describing construction health and safety in Ethiopia. In this study a relatively higher prevalence of injury was reported among building construction employees compared to other studies. If urgent interventions are not in place, the absence from work, loss of productivity and work-related illnesses, disabilities and fatalities will continue to be a major challenge of the construction industry in the future. Therefore, programs to mitigate the burden borne by construction-related injuries should focus on areas, such as provision of safety trainings, promoting use of PPE and monitoring substance abuse in workplace. Keywords: Construction industry, Occupational injuries, Workers, Workplace safety
Background The World Health Organization defines occupational injury as an epidemic problem in the field of public health in developing countries [1, 2]. The human suffering caused by the injuries is hurtful to the employee, the employer and society [3–5]. According to the International Labor Organization there are 270 million occupational accidents causing 2 million deaths annually [6]. In the United States the cost of occupational injuries was $177.2 billion, and 35 million working days were lost annually [3]. The construction industry is responsible for more * Correspondence: [email protected] 1 Institute of Public Health, the University of Gondar, Gondar, Ethiopia Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
than half of all occupational injuries and deaths worldwide [7]. It is widely recognized as having high accident rates which result in absence from work, loss of productivity, permanent disabilities and even fatalities [8]. The estimated direct and
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