Knowledge, attitude and practices of occupational safety and health in formal settings: a case study of the Ministry of Health Headquarters

Abstract

Shifts in work tasks, technological progress and the development of higher skill levels have led to less work in manual occupations and more work in administrative occupations. This has led to a shift in health risks due to long working hours and increased sitting time. Sedentary behaviour, primarily sitting, is associated with various negative health outcomes including all-cause mortality, cardiovascular diseases, and diabetes. This study aimed to determine the knowledge, attitude, and practices on OSH in order to identify evidence-based interventions to ensure the public health problem is addressed. The study employed both qualitative and quantitative methods. Quantitatively, self-administered questionnaires incorporated into kobo collect tool link developed using Kobo collect (version 2023.2.4) was used to interview 184 respondents. Data was then transferred to STATA (Version 14) software for analysis. Additionally, an observational checklist containing list of traits of OSH was used to assess practices by workers. Qualitatively, unstructured key informant interview guides were used. Note-taking together with audio recordings was conducted during interviews, followed by transcription of the audio recordings and thematic analysis of data. 56% were males. The mean age of the respondents was 37.86, 61.9% had acquired higher education and 56.5% had spent more than 5 years at the workplace 69.9% had partners. Overall knowledge on OSH was at 59% indicating low levels of knowledge among the workers while attitude of the workers towards OSH was at 76% indicating positive attitude and practices a mean response of 2.1(42%) indicating poor practices. These indicate that workers of the Ministry of Health lack knowledge which directly influences their practices towards OSH hence poor compliance to OSH measures. Budget allocation of funds and resources for OSH, creation of awareness, conducting OSH trainings, application of the OSH regulations, inspections and enforcement by the management as well as proactive multisectoral strategies are highly recommended to improve the situation.