A Study to estimate the Prevalence of Health Problems and to Assess the Knowledge Regarding Prevention on Health Problems among Incense Stick Workers in Selected Industries at Bangalore

The health and efficiency of workers working in any organization get influenced in large measures by conditions prevailing in their work environment. The prevailing conditions are related to physical, biological, chemical and social agents. A worker is usually exposed to these agents for about six to eight hours daily. It is therefore, essential that this environment should be wholesome and free from any kind of harmful agents as far as possible.

The study was undertaken to estimate the prevalence and to assess the knowledge regarding prevention on health problems among incense stick workers in selected industries at, Bangalore.

To estimate the prevalence of Health problems among incense stick workers.

To assess the level of knowledge regarding prevention on health problems among incense stick workers.

To find correlation between prevalence of health problems and knowledge regarding prevention of health problems among incense stick workers.

To find the association between the findings of the study and selected socio-demographic variables

A descriptive survey approach was used for the study. Non-probability Convenient sampling techniques was used to select 50 incense stick workers working at Sri Bhavani Perfumers, Bangalore. Data was collected using checklist to estimate the prevalence and structured questionnaire to assess knowledge.

The prevalence of the subjects shows that the highest mean observed was 3.68 for Back pain with mean percentage of 92 and standard deviation of 0.30, whereas the lowest mean observed was in the area of Abdomen pain was 1.68 with mean percentage of 42 and standard deviation of 1.50. The overall prevalence of mean was 13.12 with mean percentage of 65.6 and standard deviation of 4.99.

Analysis on level of knowledge of the subjects revealed that most of the worker had inadequate (98%) and only (2%) had moderately adequate knowledge. Highest mean observed was 1.62 for Skin problem as well as Urinary problem with Mean Percentage of 32.4 and Standard deviation of 0.93, where as the lowest mean observed was in the area of Abdominal pain and Respiratory problem which was 1.02 with mean percentage of 25.5 and standard deviation of 0.66. The overall knowledge mean was 6.72 with mean percentage of 44.6 and standard deviation of 3.78.

The inferential analysis using Karl Pearson's correlation coefficient showed moderately negative correlation exists between prevalence and knowledge of health problems among incense stick workers with the calculated ‘r’ value -0.09. Hence the null hypothesis (HO₁) stated that there is no relationship between prevalence and knowledge of health problems among incense stick workers was accepted.

The analysis of association of prevalence of the subjects, with selected socio demographic variables showed that calculated X² value is less than table value. Hence the null hypotheses (HO₂) stated as there is no significant association between the findings of the study and selected socio demographic variable was accepted.

The analysis of association was found to exists between prevalence of Back pain in regard to type of food, hours of exposure, since the calculated X² value is more than table value at p<0.05 level of significance, HO₂ stated as there is no significant association between the prevalence of health problems and selected socio demographic variable was rejected in this aspect.

The calculated X² values shows there is no association was found to between the level of knowledge with selected socio-demographic variables. Hence the Null Hypothesis (HO₂) stated that there was no significant association between the level of knowledge and selected socio demographic variables so null hypothesis is accepted.

Study concluded that the 98% of the incense stick workers had inadequate knowledge and only 2% had moderately adequate knowledge. Majority of subjects 92% had prevalence of Back pain and only 42% subjects had prevalence of abdominal pain. So adequate information will decrease the prevalence of health problems as well as increase their knowledge regarding prevention health problems.