Abstract
The association between worksite temperature and perceived work ability (WA) in various educational classes remains unknown. Therefore, we interviewed 286 poultry industry workers in Thailand about their WA and linked their responses to worksite temperature. WA was based on the self-assessment of current work ability compared with their lifetime best ability (scores 0–10). Education was classified as high (university or vocational school) or low (less education). Temperature was classified as cold (−22–10°C) or warm (10–23°C). WA and the occurrence of a low WA were regressed on worksite temperature, education, and their interaction with the adjustment for sex, age, job category, physical work strain, moving between cold and warm sites, thermal insulation of clothing, relative humidity, and air velocity. The average worksite temperature was 10°C for high- and 1°C for low-educated workers. The average WA score was 8.32 (SD, 1.33; range, 4–10) and classified as low (<8) in 23% of the workers. In highly-educated workers, the adjusted mean WA decreased from 9.11 in the warm areas to 8.02 in the cold areas and the prevalence of a low WA increased from 11 to 30%, while no significant change was observed in less-educated workers. The WA score was estimated to decline by 10% more (95% CI, 4–16%) in the cold areas for the more vs. less-educated workers and the prevalence of a poor WA was estimated to increase 3.09 times (95% CI, 1.43–5.45) more. Highly-educated workers in this industry are a risk group that should be given customized advice.
Highlights
Food industry workers often work at temperatures down to −20◦C and commonly suffer from various cold-related harms
The primary strength of this study is that we addressed the potential modifying effect of education on how workplace cold is associated with WA
All the workers, educated workers in particular, should be given intensified health education to increase the awareness of cold hazards; they should be reminded to wear thicker clothing and more clothing layers that effectively reduce cold harm [2], air conditioning should be set appropriately [33]; and workers should be advised to avoid unnecessary stays in cold and consume hot beverages to maintain proper hydration
Summary
Food industry workers often work at temperatures down to −20◦C and commonly suffer from various cold-related harms. In Thailand, 82% of poultry industry workers report degradation of performance that they attribute to workplace cold [1]. The means used to prevent or mitigate cold harm include protective clothing [2] and restricting the time spent in cold. Despite these measures, the prevalence of various cold adversities remains high and most workers in this. Workplace Cold and Work Ability industry suffer from at least some cold-related symptoms or degradation of performance [1,2,3,4]. Since Thailand is the 8th largest provider of chicken meat and products worldwide [6] and employs a large proportion of the overall labor force, any effective preventive efforts could produce large reductions in cold-related illness burden and economic losses
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