Prevalence and determinants of occupational injuries among small-scale industry workers in sub-saharan Africa. A systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Occupational injuries are manifestations of diseases because of different exposure in the workplace like Small-Scale cement factories, tanneries, textile and/or street sweeping, and woodworkers all of which affect the health condition and productivity. In sub-Saharan Africa, several primary studies were conducted regarding the magnitude of occupational injuries with a prevalence of 68.89% in street sweepers and determinant factors with inconsistent results. This meta-analysis aimed to the pooled prevalence of occupational injuries and their associated factors in Sub-Saharan Africa among workers working in small-Scale industries. PubMed, African Journals Online, Google Scholar, Cochrane Library, and Direct Google were systematically searched to identify primary studies. Three authors performed data abstraction and quality assessment for each included study independently. Cochran’s Q-statistic and I-squared statistics were used to check heterogeneity. The random-effects models were used to estimate the pooled prevalence and associated factors of occupational injuries. Publication bias was checked by funnel plot and Egger’s test, and also sensitivity analyses were performed. 20 primary studies with 7,235 study participants were included in the Systematic review and meta-analysis of the pooled prevalence of occupational injuries among Small-Scale industry workers in Sub-Saharan Africa. The pooled prevalence of overall occupational injuries among Small-scale industry workers in Sub-Saharan Africa was 53.23% (95% CI= 44.71, 61.74). Training, Sleeping disturbance, and Educational level were significantly associated with occupational injuries. In this review, the pooled prevalence of occupational injuries was high. The findings of this study dictate the need for the implementation of workplace safety measures. Special attention is required for employees with lower educational levels and training.