Epidemiological Correlates of Well Being at Work Place and Hazards Identification and Risk assessment Amongst Saw Mill Workers in Anand, Gujarat

CONTEXT: The nature of the work in saw mills carries a huge risk as the workers are exposed to various life-threatening hazards. AIMS: This study was conducted to know the “Work place Wellbeing” of the saw mill workers, occupational Hazards identification and Risk assessment (HIRA) including hazard communication, occupational accidents, injuries and diseases. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: The study was a cross sectional study amongst workers of saw mills. METHODS AND MATERIAL: A total of 219 saw mill workers were interviewed. “Work place wellbeing”, was studied by using the “Workplace Wellbeing Questionnaire - Black Dog Institute” which includes four areas of workplace wellbeing viz. (1) Work satisfaction, (2) Organizational respect for the employee, (3) Employer care, and (4) Intrusion of work into private life. Reliability analysis was done and Cronbach's alpha was found. Association was found between the work place wellbeing and other demographic and occupational variables. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: Proportions and Mann–Whitney U test. RESULTS: Scores of all the participants fall in the medium scale for “work satisfaction”. For “respect”, 93.6% fall in the medium scale. In “employer care” 97.7% fall in medium category. All the workers scored in the medium scale for the “intrusion in private life”. None of the scores were in low scale for any domain. Injury as an event was reported by 8.22%. Specific disease prevalence was highest for back ache as 72.1%. Hazard communication was done in 40% workers. CONCLUSIONS: We found poor working positions at work place and they did suffer from various medical morbidities at the work place.