Prevalence and associated factors of occupational injuries among Genale- Dawa 3D hydropower dam construction project workers, South East Ethiopia, 2018

Abstract

Abstract Introduction: Globally, about 160 million people encounter occupational injuries; ILO estimates that the cost to be 4% of the global GDP or $1.25 trillion USD. The second largest number of occupational injuries was reported from construction industries. Occupational injury in the construction industry is 4 to 5 times that of manufacturing industry. Objective: The aim of the present study was to assess the prevalence and associated factors of occupational injuries among Genale- Dawa 3D hydropower dam construction project workers South East Ethiopia. Method: Institutional-based cross-sectional study design was conducted in GenaleDawa 3D hydropower dam construction project from April-01-22, 2018. A total of 405 dam construction project workers were included in the study. The study participants were selected by using simple random sampling technique. Data were collected though interview using structured questionnaire then collected data was entered into Epi-info version 7 and analysis was done by using SPSS version 20 software. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression was used to see the association between predictors and dependent variable. The 95% C.I and adjusted odds ratio was used to see the strength of association. Results: The prevalence of occupational injuries in the last 12 months prior to the study was 57.8% with [95%CI :( 52.8, 62.7)]. Age [AOR:2.63, 95% CI:(1.40, 4.94)], educational status [AOR:3.64,95%CI:(1.38, 9.56)], drinking alcohol [AOR:2.26,95%CI: (1.22, 4.22)], job stress [AOR:3.47, 95%CI: (1.90, 6.35)], work shift [AOR:2.65, 95% CI:(1.18, 5.94)] and working hour per week [AOR:2.48, 95% CI: (1.55,3.73)] were factors significantly associated with occupational injury. Conclusion and recommendation: Occupational injuries were common among dam construction project workers. Therefore, counter measures such as conducting regular monitoring of substance abuse, reduce overtime work, rotation work shift, and consider age and educational status during employee recruitment could be effective to decrease prevalence of occupational injuries. Keywords: Hydropower dam construction workers, Occupational injury, Ethiopia