Occupational Physical Injuries and Associated Factors Among Workers of Bishoftu Automotive Industry, Bishoftu, Ethiopia

Abstract

<i>Background</i>: Occupational injury is an unintentional personal physical injury resulting from occupational accidents. It is a major public health problem resulting in serious social and economic consequences that could potentially be prevented. However, evidence on occupational physical injury among automotive industry workers in the country; particularly in the study area was scanty. Hence, this study was aimed to assess the prevalence of occupational physical injuries and associated factors among workers of the Bishoftu automotive industry, Bishoftu, Ethiopia. <i>Methods</i>: Institutional-based cross-sectional study design was employed to assess the prevalence of occupational physical injury among workers of the Bishoftu automotive industry from December 15 to 30, 2019. Data was collected from 477 randomly selected participants and analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 25. Multi-variable logistic regression analysis was performed to identify predictors of occupational injuries and all variables with P-value at<0.05 and an Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR) with 95% CI were used to declare the predictors of the outcome variable. <i>Results</i>: The prevalence of occupational physical injury among Bishoftu automotive industry workers within the last 12 months was 29.4% (95% CI: 25.2, 33.9). Abrasion 50 (39%), cut 34 (26.6%) and puncture 19 (14.8%) were the most common types of injuries; and of which hands 54 (42.2%), head 22 (17.2%), legs 20 (15.6%) and eyes 19 (14.8%) were the most commonly affected body parts. Workers with low monthly income [AOR: 3.03, 95% CI (1.25, 7.36)], sleeping disorders during working time [AOR: 5.40, 95% CI (2.30 – 9.40)], without Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) during working time [AOR: 14, 95% CI (7.71, 25.63)] and working greater than forty-eight hours per week [AOR: 2.40, 95% CI (1.40, 7.14)] were factors significantly associated with occupational injury. <i>Conclusion</i>: Low monthly income, sleeping disorders, not using PPE and engaging in work for greater than forty-eight hours were major predictors of occupational injury. Hence, decision makers, policy designers, implementers, and managers of an industry should have to give due attention toward effective implementation of injury prevention policies, regulations and strategies; provision of adequate and quality PPEs and effective utilization of PPE is needed.