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Indian Journal of Medical Sciences, Volume 57, Number 7, July 2003, pp. 300-302 Knowledge and practices regarding injury care among stone quartz workers R R Tiwari,* R Narayan,* H N Saiyed** *Research Officer, Occupational Medicine Division; **Director, National Institute
of
Occupational Health, Ahmedabad.
Code Number: ms03004 Injuries are common occurrences in today's world. However, certain occupation exposes the workers employed in it to unusual excess risk of injuries. Stone quartz industry, which provides livelihood to a large proportion of population, is one such occupation.1,2 This industry mostly being an unorganized one exposes the worker through dual risk. Firstly, being unorganized sector these are small industry devoid of mechanized processes. Processes such as screening, loading and unloading, etc. are all carried out manually. This exposes the workers to increased risk of getting minor and severe injuries. Secondly, the workers are not covered under any social security scheme and thus most of the times they do not get timely care for injuries. Additionally widespread prevalence of illiteracy among workers also prevents the workers from proper care of injuries. If the initial management of wounds and injuries is improper and inadequate, even minor injuries may be complicated by wound sepsis.3-5 Thus, the awareness about proper injury care among stone quartz worker gains importance. Moreover, no such studies among this group of workers had been carried out, particularly in India. Fortified by this fact the present study was carried out to study the level of knowledge and practices about injury care among stone quartz workers. MATERIAL AND METHODS The present cross sectional study was carried out among the stone quartz workers of Chhotaudepur taluka of Gujarat state. A total of 137 stone quartz workers were included in the present study. Using interview technique as a tool for data collection the details of demographic characteristics were recorded on predesigned proforma. The questions eliciting knowledge, attitude and practices of stone quartz workers were included in the second part of questionnaire. Statistical analysis included calculation of proportions and percentages. RESULTS The distribution of study subjects according to demographic characteristics is depicted in Table 1. Of the total 137 subjects, 75(54.7%) were males while 62 (45.3%) were females. Majority of the workers belongs to the age group of <40 years. 85.4% of the workers were illiterate and almost all the workers belonged to lower socio-economic strata according to the Modified Kuppuswamy's socioeconomic scales.6 Table 2 shows the responses to the questions regarding knowledge, attitude and practices of stone quartz workers regarding injury care. DISCUSSION The present cross sectional study among stone quartz workers revealed that 45.3% of the workers were females. This is because of the fact that female constitute of cheap labour in the Indian society. However, because females are engaged in the household work, thus they are also exposed to trivial domestic injuries. Thus, as females are exposed to dual risk, knowledge regarding injury care is of utmost importance. Majority of the subjects (56.2%) responded that they would consult doctor if they get injured while 32.2% responded that they would neglect the wound, as it will heal spontaneously. This shows that they lack the knowledge that if any wound is neglected it may get complicated into wound sepsis. 19.7% told that they will treat the wound of their own using traditional herbal ointments. When asked about principles of first aid of injury 94.2% were unable to reply correctly. This could be due to widespread illiteracy and poverty among the study subjects. However, most of them preferred to consult doctor for injuries. 93 stone quartz workers suffered from injury sometime or other while at workplace and majority of them (55.9°/x) consulted doctor for that. But still a significant proportion of the subjects (44.1%) had treated the injuries either of their own using traditional medicines or had neglected the wound. Thus the present study suggests that the knowledge regarding injury care among stone quartz workers, a group which is exposed to unusual high risk of injuries, was poor. Even the attitude and practice regarding injury care was also inappropriate. Widespread illiteracy and poverty were found to be the most common causes. Thus, proper health education regarding the first aid of minor injuries is of utmost importance.7 Also repeated reinforcement of such education from time to time is needed. SUMMARY The present study designed as cross sectional study was carried out to study the knowledge and practice regarding injury care among stone quartz workers of Chhotaudepur. A total of 137 stone quartz workers were included in the study, which consisted of 54.7% males and 45.3% females. 85.4% of the workers were illiterate and almost all the workers belonged to lower socio-economic strata according to the Modified Kuppuswamy's socio-economic scale. Majority of the subjects (56.2%) responded that they would consult doctor if they get injured while 32.2% responded that they would neglect the wound, as it will heal spontaneously. Thus the present study suggests that the knowledge regarding injury care among stone quartz workers was poor. Even the attitude and practice regarding injury care was also inappropriate. REFERENCES
Copyright 2003 - Indian Journal of Medical Sciences. The following images related to this document are available:Photo images[ms03004t2.jpg] [ms03004t1.jpg] |
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