| dc.description.abstract | Background: Knowledge, attitudes and practices on occupational health and safety measures among employees of grain milling plants are very important because many of these spend a significant fraction of the day and night at work to meet their economic and social needs. However, grain milling is associated with several occupational health and safety hazards; Therefore, this study aimed to assess the knowledge, attitudes and practices on occupational health and safety measures among employees of grain milling plants in Jinja city so that interventions are generated that can be used to put in place measures to increase awareness, usage, and good perception about occupational health and safety measures in grain milling plants to reduce the risk of resultant injuries/illnesses.
Methodology: This was a cross-sectional study, utilizing quantitative methods of data collection. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire with open-ended and close-ended questions and observational checklists among 240 grain mill employees. The data was downloaded from the Kobo toolbox server, exported to Microsoft Excel, and then transferred to Stata 14.1 (Stata Corp, Texas, US) for data cleaning and analysis. Univariate analysis was done to analyze the quantitative data.
Results: Majority of the respondents (72.9%, 175/240) were males. About (40.8%, 98/240) had attained secondary school. Most grain mill employees (67.9%, 163/240) had temporary employment. Majority of grain mill employees (97.9% 235/240) gain skills through apprenticeship. Majority of the respondents (98.3%, 236/160) had ever got work related injury. Of the 236, (28.8%, 68/236) reported to have ever got a cut injury. (34.7%, 82/236) of the respondents also reported having suffered ill-health for example backaches. Majority 55.8% (134/240) of the respondents were knowledgeable on OSH measures, more than half 51.3% (117/240) showed a good attitude towards OSH measures while almost three-fifths 59.6% (143/240) exhibited poor practices regarding OSH measures.
Conclusion: Whereas, majority of grain mill employees were knowledgeable on occupational health and safety measures, more than half had good attitude while almost three-fifths exhibited poor practices regarding occupational health and safety measures. Therefore, there is need to concentrate on trainings that focus on the benefits of OHS compliance and negative consequences of non-compliance among employees at grain milling plants in order to protect them from the burden of occupational hazards and injuries/illnesses and establishment of confidential hazard reporting system for early detection of hazards at the workplace. | en_US |
