Health sufferings, healthcare seeking behavior, awareness about health insurance, and health related rights of ready made garments workers in Bangladesh: Findings from a cross‐sectional study

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed at examining health sufferings of readymade garments (RMG) workers, the factors that affect their health sufferings, their healthcare seeking pattern, knowledge about health insurance and health related rights in Bangladesh. METHODS: A cross‐sectional study was conducted among 486 RMG workers recruited randomly from eight garments factories located on the periphery of Dhaka, Bangladesh. The prevalence of musculoskeletal pain, headache, fever and abdominal pain was estimated and multivariable logistic regression analysis was performed to examine association between these illnesses of workers and their socio‐demographic characteristics and other work related information. We also explored their healthcare seeking patterns, knowledge about health insurance and health related rights. RESULTS: The prevalence of musculoskeletal pain, headache, fever and abdominal pain was found to be 78.1%, 57.9%, 52.2% and 24.6%, respectively, among the RMG workers. Factors that increased the odds of: musculoskeletal pain were working for more than 10 h per day (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]: 2.3, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.1–4.7) and being female [AOR: 4.6, 95% CI: 2.0–10.6]; fever was living in slums [AOR: 1.9, 95% CI: 1.1–3.5]; and abdominal pain was being female [AOR: 3.6, 95% CI: 1.4–9.3]. The workers commonly reported visiting drug sellers in local pharmacies for reported illnesses. They also had better knowledge of health related rights but poor knowledge of health insurance. CONCLUSION: In order to address the overall health and well‐being of the RMG workers, it is imperative to lay out a blueprint for a safe and healthy workplace.