Usage of personal protective equipments among workers of a foundry in South India: interventional study

Abstract

Introduction: Occupational hazards exist in every industry. Along with engineering and administrative measures, usage of personal protective equipments (PPE) by the workers is equally important in protecting the workers. However a high level of non-compliance to PPE usage among the workers is commonly noted. South India has several foundries, giving employment to many workers. The objectives of the study were to find out the level of PPE usage among the foundry workers, before and after an interventional program and to assess the relative effectiveness of different strategies of the program in bringing out the improved PPE compliance among them. Materials and methods: After obtaining ethical clearance, the study was conducted among 78 permanent workers of a foundry in Coimbatore.  First the demographic details of the subjects and their level of usage of PPE were recorded, in the pre-test. Then a comprehensive three faceted interventional program, consisting of strategies such as health education to the workers, peer motivation by co-workers, and posters in the working environment, was implemented simultaneously among all subjects. After three months of implementation of the program, the post-test was conducted and the data were analyzed to measure the effectiveness of the intervention.  Results: After the interventional program, the workers showed significant improvement in PPE usage (p<0.001) from the ‘pre-test’ level. Regarding their perception about which of the three strategies relatively contributed to bring out the improvement, most of the workers rated the strategy of peer motivation as ‘high’ effectiveness, health education- ‘average’ effectiveness and posters in working environment- ‘low’ effectiveness. Conclusion: Interventional program using multiple strategies in an integrated manner has synergistically enhanced the behaviour change among the workers.