Assessment of Magnitude of Occupational Injury and Associated Factors among Solid Waste Collectors in Nifas Silk Lafto Sub City, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Abstract

Abstract Background: Occupational injury is any physical injury conditions sustained on a worker in connection with the performance of his or her work. The collection of household waste is a hard job, which requires repeated heavy physical activity such as the manual lifting and handling of heavy bins. As developing countries continue to grow economically, urbanization and the challenge of solid waste management come to be headache to the government. Solid waste in Addis Ababa (AA) city is collected manually which requires repeated heavy physical activities such as lifting, carrying, pulling, and pushing. The aim of this study was to assess the magnitude of occupational injuries and associated factors among micro and small scale enterprise solid waste collectors in Nifas Silk Lafto sub city, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2017. Methods: A cross-sectional study design was conducted from October 22/2017 to December 8/2017 G.C. The data was collected through interview guided structured questionnaire and observation check list by trained data collectors from a total of 268 participants with the response rate of 98.2% after pretesting of 27 questionnaires by using simple random sampling technique. Descriptive statistics was done for most variables in the study using statistical parameters; bivariate and multivariable analysis was done by using SPSS. Based on AOR and P-value <0.05 strength of association and statistical significance was tested. Result: In this study, the annual magnitude of at least one occupational injury among solid waste workers was 29.5%. Of these, 83.8% of them were visited health facility to receive health care. The independent predictors of at least one occupational injury were: working more than 8 hours per day(AOR: 8.345, 95%CI: (3.029,22.993), P-value=0.000), not trained on occupational health and safety (AOR: 14.093, 95%CI: (4.733,41.958), P-value=0.000), alcohol drinking (AOR: 55.917, 95%CI: (15.780,198.147), P-value=0.000), sleeping disturbance related to the job (AOR: 5.596, 95%CI: (1.851,16.916), P-value=0.002), and not satisfied on the level of payment (AOR: 2.877, 95%CI; (1.231,6.722), P-value=0.015) Conclusion: The magnitude of occupational injuries among house to house solid waste collection workers in Nifas Silk Lafto sub city is lower than other similar studies conducted in Ethiopia. Minimizing working hours, providing job specific training regarding occupational health and safety and supplying quality personal protective equipment are interventions expected to cope with the problem. Key words: Occupational injuries, house hold solid waste collectors