Subjective Health Complaints among the Garments Worker

Abstract

Background: The garments sector in Bangladesh is fronting prospective growth with millions of garments workers at the forefront. Workers suffered from different health problems due to extensive workload, inadequate personal protective equipment and poor or non-existent of health facilities in the workplace. Methods: A cross-sectional study was done to determine the subjective health complaints 180 among the garments workers of two garments factories in Dhaka. ‘Subjective Health Complaints Inventory’ (SHCs) scale was used to construct the questionnaire for interviewing the workers. Results: The garments workers mean age was 27.0±5.7 years and mean working hour’s55.4±6.3per week. The prevalence of SHCs was gastrointestinal problems (89.4%), flu (63.9%), musculoskeletal pain (56.7%), pseudo-neurology problems (41.1%) and allergy (33.3%). The significant subscale of SHCs prevalence was cold flu (59.1%) in flu, leg pain (27.5%) in musculoskeletal pain, heat flushes (23.0%) in pseudo-neurological problems, gas discomfort (53.4%) in gastrointestinal problems and allergies (28.3%) in allergy. Majority of the worker’s (85.0%) health conditions were good. Statistically significant association found coughing with the age; and gas discomfort and allergies (p<0.05) were significant with the gender of the workers. Conclusion: This study reveals that the majorities of the workers’ health condition was good and cough, gas discomfort and allergies being the most prevalent health issues. The garments authorities and policymakers indeed develop primary healthcare services in their garments by establishing health facilities in order to improve the health state of workers.