Assessment of Occupational Health and Safety Practices and Its Associated Factors Among Star Rated Hotels Housekeeping Workers in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Creators: name: Bobo, Segni
Publisher: name: National Academic Digital Repository of Ethiopia
Year: 2017

description: Background: - Occupational health and safety (OHS) practice refers to behavior of workers to act safely. These includes any activity enabling the prevention and control of adverse work-related hazards. In this study, we measured OSH practice at individual level. Appropriate tool was developed and used after getting permissions from the institutional review board of school of public health, Addis Ababa University. Objective: - To assess occupational health and safety practices and its associated factors among star rated hotels housekeeping workers in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Methods: - Institution based cross-sectional study was conducted from march 01-May 28/2007, among 872 housekeeping workers sampled from 38 star hotels. The study used pretested, structured questionnaire, observational checklist and review of documents to collect data. Occupational characteristics based stratification sampling and analysis were also considered. Crude odds ratio with 95% C.I was computed to identify association of independent variables and the outcome. Multivariate logistic regression analysis were computed to determine relative effect of independent variables on the outcome. To maintain stability only variables with p-value &lt; 0.2 in the binary logistic regression analysis were fitted into the subsequent models. Data entry was done by using Epi Info version 7.2.0.1 ; data analysis and quality were maintained by STATA 14 software's. Levels of statistical significance were set at p &lt; 0.05. Results: - Response rate of the study was 100%. Among 872 housekeeping workers 452 (51.83%) were room attendants and 420 (48.17%) cleansing workers. Females account for 641 (73.51%) and males account for 231 (26.49%). Based on the composite score of seven different indicators, the overall OSH practice of participants were; 57.22% good and 42.78% were poor OSH practices. Several factors were significantly associated with OSH practices among both cleansing workers and room attendants; Regarding cleansing workers educational status; college and above (AOR= 5.87, 95% C.I: 2.58, 13.35) or secondary (AOR= 5.04, 95% C.I: 2.11, 12.06) versus primary levels. Workers in higher star hotels had also higher odds of good OSH practices; three star hotels (AOR= 8.16, 95% C.I: 2.28, 29.23) or five star (AOR= 5.27, 95% C.I: 1.34, 20.80 or four star (AOR= 3.90, 95% C.I: 1.13, 13.40) versus cleansing workers in one star. Knowing how to use PPE (AOR= 2.43, 95% C.I: 1.17, 5.04) compared to lacking such knowledge. Cleansing workers who had OSH training (AOR= 2.24, 95% C.I: 1.15, 4.37) versus not trained. Among room attendants, the study showed that variables such as sex, educational status, hotels star grade, knowledge of workers right, workplace OSH training, knowledge of PPE uses and knowledges of safety signs had significant association with OSH practice. Conclusion and recommendations: - The extent of poor OSH practices among star rated hotels housekeeping workers is currently at a level that needs immediate public health action. Implementations of basic OHS services such as trainings, ensuring strong supportive supervision systems and strengthening legal compliances, further medical checkups were few of urgently advisable interventions.