Magnitude of occupational injury and associated factors among factory workers in Ethiopia: The case of Mugher Cement Factory

Throughout the world, occupational exposure in cement factories continue to cause serious public health problems and are leading cause of disability and disease among workers. Since there has not been any study on the prevalence and associated factors of occupational injury in cement factory, this study investigates the prevalence and associated factors of occupational injuries among cement factory workers in Mugher. An institution based cross-sectional study was conducted using stratified random sampling by job category. The study participants were selected using simple random sampling technique and data collected by trained data collectors using pretested questionnaire. The data was edited, entered into a computer using Epi Info version 3.5.0 then exported to IBM SPSS version 21 and cleaned. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were done. The prevalence of occupational injury in one year was 10.4%. In addition, 1356 working days were lost as a result of 52 work related injuries. Thirty-seven (71.2%) were hospitalized, accounting for 51.4% hospitalization for more than 24 h, 18(34.6%) were absent from work for 15 to 30 days. Job category was the significant contributing factor for occupational injuries with workers in the cement production factory 74.7% less likely to experience occupational injury than workers in clinker production [AOR= 0.25, CI: (0.100-0.639)]. The prevalence of occupational injury was high, hence focus should be on preventive measures like timely provision of adequate and quality safety materials along with workplace supervision. Key words: Occupational injury, cement factory workers, disability, disease and safety materials.