A Study of Morbidity Pattern in Street Sweepers: A Cross-sectional Study

BACKGROUND: Street sweepers play an important role in maintaining the health and hygiene within the cities. This job exposes the street sweepers to a variety of risk factors such as dust, toxins and diesel exhaust pollution, which make them vulnerable to develop certain occupational diseases. Therefore, it was thought necessary to study the morbidity profile in this occupational group. OBJECTIVES: To study the prevalence of morbidities among street sweepers and comparison group. STUDY DESIGN: A cross-sectional study with a comparison group. STUDY SETTING: Nagpur Municipal Corporation, Nagpur. SUBJECTS: The study included two groups: (1) A study group comprising 273 street sweepers. (2) A comparison group comprising 142 class IV workers working in the office buildings of Nagpur Municipal Corporation, Nagpur. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A pretested proforma was used to record the necessary information such as clinical history, sociodemographic factors, findings of clinical examination and investigations performed. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: The important morbidities detected among street sweepers were the following: anemia (20.5%), hypertension (9.5%), upper respiratory tract infections (URTI) (7.3%) and chronic bronchitis (5.9%). In the comparison group, important morbidities detected were the following: anemia (20.4%), hypertension (11.3%), hyperacidity (9.9%), URTI (7.0%) and refractive error (7.0%). Chronic bronchitis was detected in two subjects (1.4%) of the comparison group. The prevalence of chronic bronchitis was significantly high among street sweepers than that of subjects of the comparison group. Therefore, it is recommended that further studies with a larger sample size be undertaken to identify the factors responsible for higher prevalence of chronic bronchitis among the street sweepers.