Knowledge and Awareness of Occupational Respiratory Diseases in Abia State, Nigeria

Abstract

Occupational respiratory diseases can occur at the workplace when workers inhale gaseous pollutants. This study was a cross-sectional descriptive study carried out in 2 urban centers of Abia State, Nigeria to investigate the knowledge and awareness of residents to occupational respiratory diseases. The simple random sampling technique was adopted to choose participants for the study. The residents gave an informed consent to be part of the study and were interviewed using a well-structured questionnaire. Results showed that out of 322 subjects that participated in this study, 277(86.02%) of the subjects responded “strongly agree” to “dusts and gases are emitted at aluminium plants”; 20(6.21%) responded “agree”; 301(93.48%) responded “strongly agree” to “inhalation of dusts and gases can cause respiratory problems”, 13(4.04%) responded “agree”; 291(90.37%) responded “strongly agree” to “exposure to high levels of CO can lead to death”, 30(9.32%) responded “agree”; 301(93.48%) responded “strongly agree” to “exposure to high noise levels can cause hearing loss”, 15(4.66%) responded “agree”; 309(95.96%) responded “strongly agree” to “long-term exposure to gases and chemicals can cause lung and renal diseases”, 7(2.17%) responded “agree”. It was concluded that residents in Abia State, Nigeria were aware that inhalation of dusts and gases can cause respiratory problems. Further studies in the rural centers of the country were recommended. Keywords: Knowledge, Awareness, Respiratory diseases, Occupational diseases, Lung