Assessment of Respiratory Symptoms among Woodworkers in Jimma Town, Southwest Ethiopia, A Comparative Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Background: Wood dust is one of the most common sources of occupational exposures in the world. Objective:The aim of the present study was to assess respiratory symptoms among woodworkers of Jimma town, Ethiopia, 2018 G.C. Materials and Method:A community based comparative cross-sectional study was conducted among woodworkers and non-woodworkers in Jimma town, 2018 G.C. Multistage random sampling technique was used to select the exposed study group and convenience sampling technique was used to select the non-exposed group. A standardized structured questionnaire was used to evaluate the respiratory symptoms. A total of 140 study participants were enrolled in the study. Data were checked for completeness, entered into Epi data version 1.7 and exported to SPSS version 20 for further analysis. Descriptive statistics were computed, and results were presented with narratives, tables or figures.Results: Higher prevalence of respiratory symptoms was observed among woodworkers than non-woodworkers. The prevalence of respiratory symptoms like cough (41.4% vs. 10%), phlegm (34.3% vs.14.3%) and chest pain (32.9 vs. 17.1) shows statistically significance differences among exposed to non-exposed groups respectively Conclusion and Recommendation: The higher prevalence of respiratory symptoms among woodworkers needs due emphasis on preventive measures and awareness creation about wood dust-related respiratory symptoms.

Assessment of dust exposure and chronic respiratory symptoms among workers in medium scale woodwork factories in Ethiopia; a cross sectional study

“…This is supported by the personal sampling of the study sites that showed concentrations of total wood dust clearly over TLV set by ACGIH [31] that obtained from working sites with a clear absence of any form of dust control mechanism in place and the proper type of RPE. This finding is comparatively higher than the study done in Southwest Ethiopia, Jimma town with cough (41.4%), phlegm (34.3%), wheezing (12.4%), chest pain (32.9%) and breathlessness (21.5%) [11], a study done in Northeast of Thailand with cough (18.8%), phlegm (15.7%), wheezing (5.9%), and breathlessness (7.8%) [7] and a study done in Ethiopia with cough (39%), phlegm (27%), wheezing (45%), and breathlessness (24%) [13]. The difference might be due to a higher percentage (24.1%) of workers were wearing masks while working and workers had a high level of knowledge and attitude toward dust prevention in the previous studies [7].…”

“…Chronic respiratory health symptom is one of the major health problems of woodworkers resulting from breathing in noxious or toxic chemicals such as wood dust [6,7]. Wood dust, which is an organic dust, is one of the most occupational exposure woodworkers are exposed during work causing several respiratory diseases [8]. Wood dust is classified as a human carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer [9,10].…”

“…Higher prevalence of chronic respiratory symptoms was found among wood workers in Ethiopia, [11][12][13]. Previous studies conducted in Ethiopia investigated the prevalence of chronic respiratory symptoms among woodworkers [11][12][13] and personal wood dust concentration level of workers in particleboard and small-scale woodwork enterprises [13,14].…”

Prevalence of Respiratory Symptoms and Risk Factors Among Street Sweepers in Gondar City Northwest, Ethiopia, 2021: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…Whistling breathing during the respiratory cycle perceived by the respondents at least 3 months in a year. 19…”

“…Whistling breathing during the respiratory cycle perceived by the respondents at least 3 months in a year. 19 Past respiratory illness. Respiratory disease such as TB, chronic bronchitis, lung cancer, and heart disease that could be developed before and identified by physicians.…”