Prevalence of Work-Related Health Hazard and Associated Factors Among Health Workers in Public Health Institutions of Gambella Town, Western Ethiopia: Cross-Sectional Survey

Background: Many health-related occupational hazards confront healthcare workers. Examining the prevalence of hazards enables to search for better risk management for healthcare workers because these workers are often the first point of interaction, particularly in resource-limited settings like Ethiopia. Therefore, this study assessed the prevalence of work-related occupational hazards and identified related factors among healthcare workers in public health facilities of Gambella town, Western Ethiopia.

Methods: Institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 260 randomly selected healthcare workers from June 1-21, 2021. A semi structured tool was used to collect data and data analysis was performed using SPSS version 25. Multivariable logistic regression was used to identify the predictors of outcome variable and the significance of associations was declared by using a 95% CI and a -value of <0.05.

Results: The prevalence of occupational health hazards among healthcare workers was 36.5% (95% CI: 31, 42). The absence of immediate treatments for injured health workers (AOR = 8.86, 95% CI: 2.5, 31.4), lack of personal protective equipment (AOR = 3.6, 95% CI: 1.5, 8.4), working greater than eight hours per day (AOR = 7.9, 95% CI: 3.1, 19.7), working in the night shifts (AOR = 8.1, 95% CI: 2.5, 26.1), and absence of effective leadership in the health facility (AOR = 5.2, 95% CI: 1.9, 14.5) were factors associated with the prevalence of occupational hazards.

Conclusions: There was a relatively high degree of occupational health hazard exposure among health workers in the study area compared to kinds of literature from other settings. Health workers were exposed to a wide range of occupational hazards, and risk reduction mechanisms and safety actions were inadequately implemented. Therefore, the health workers' occupational health and safety needs should be prioritized and appropriate measures should be taken to mitigate the problems.