LACK OF OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH RESEARCH IN NEPAL

Abstract

In his article on occupational health research in developing countries, Nuwayhid emphasized that many developing countries need to translate scientific findings into effective actions with regard to occupational health.1 Nuwayhid suggested that to improve the situation, we should focus on social and political contexts first and then address the particularities of the workplace—that we should start with the “external-contextual domain” and move to the “internal domain” of occupational health. In Nepal, the second long-term health plan (1997–2017)2 has identified occupational health as one of the emerging priority health issues. However, the long-term health plan document has not dealt with this issue in depth. Thus, little specific action has been taken in Nepal. We hypothesized that in such a situation, the existing scientific findings would be useful in formulating a specific strategy. Therefore, we undertook a literature review to assess the situation of occupational health research in Nepal. On November 17, 2004, we searched MEDLINE for articles published from 1966 to 2004, using the keywords “Nepal” and “occupational health.” Then we searched for articles published from 1999 to 2003, using the keyword “Nepal.” We assessed each of these articles independently to check their relevance to occupational health in Nepal. We found that 2 of 2325 (0.08%) articles published from 1966 to 2004 were relevant to occupational health in Nepal. However, when we assessed their focus, we found that one was about the control of Taenia solium infection in Nepal, and the other was about improving occupational safety and health in Asian countries in general. Of 681 articles published from 1999 to 2003, 5 (0.7%) were relevant to occupational health in Nepal. Three were about the health of Gurkha soldiers based in the United Kingdom and 2 were about the health status of Himalayan porters in Nepal. Our results indicate that translatable scientific findings have been extremely limited in Nepal. Although more than 81% of economically active Nepalese people aged 10 years and older are engaged in farming, and 4.2% are engaged in production,3 very little information is available on their workplaces and their work-related health problems. Obviously, occupational health–related information would be useful in designing interventions to improve the health of these people. Therefore, in a country where the number of occupational health research studies is limited, such as Nepal, research is needed that addresses “external-contextual domain” and “internal domain” simultaneously.