Association between Risk Factors and Occupational Hazards among Health Workers in Port Harcourt, Nigeria

Occupation is a labour routinely engaged in by individuals, often as a result of training, and for the purpose of making or earning a living. A hazard is something that could cause harm. The aim of this study was to study the association between risk factors and occupational hazards. A well-structured questionnaire was used for the collection of details from the respondents about their socio-demographic data, risk assessment data and hazard occurrence. The risk assessment data (risk factors) studied include: PPE provision, PPE usage, working at multiple facilities, working overtime, sleep adequacy, exercise, waste segregation, processing of biohazard specimen in closed chamber, disposal of biohazard according to set standard, and good work posture. These risk factors were studied based on physical, biological and chemical hazards. The result showed that out of 10 studied risk factors, only 8 had significant associations (p-values<0.5) with occupational hazards; working overtime, sleep adequacy were the two risk factors amongst the 8 that had significant association with all the studied occupational hazard (physical, biological and chemical hazards). PPE provision, working at multiple facilities, and waste segregation had significant association with two occupational hazards. While use of PPE, exercise and processing of specimen in closed chamber had significant associations with physical, biological and chemical hazards respectively. Disposing of biohazard according to set standard and good posture had no relationship (p-values>0.05) with occupational hazard. This study has shown occupational hazards may have varying or shared risk factors, therefore, care must be taken to ensure risk at work place is minimally reduced.