OCCUPATIONAL REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH HAZARDS AMONG UNIVERSITY WORKING FEMALES | ||||
| Egyptian Journal of Occupational Medicine | ||||
| Article 8, Volume 46, Issue 1, January 2022, Page 123-140 PDF (710.71 K) | ||||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||||
| DOI: 10.21608/ejom.2021.87485.1244 | ||||
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| Authors | ||||
| Zalat M M1, 2; Abdallah A R3, 2 | ||||
| 1Department of Community, Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Zagazig University, Egypt.+ | ||||
| 2Department of Family and Community Medicine, College of Medicine, Taibah University, KSA. | ||||
| 3Department of Community Medicine, Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, National Liver Institute, Egypt.+ | ||||
| Abstract | ||||
| Introduction: Women constitute nearly 22% of Saudi Arabia’s workforce where they may be exposed to workplace hazards. The risk factors for reproductive problems could be due to occupational or environmental factors. Aim of Work: This study aimed to determine reproductive health problems, investigate potential occupational reproductive health hazards, work-related factors, and measure the effectiveness of reproductive health education in improving female employee’s knowledge and attitude toward occupational reproductive hazards. Materials and Methods: A pre-post interventional study was conducted using a semi-structured questionnaire that included a workplace screening tool for reproductive hazards, and questions for assessment the reproductive health of the participants. A cluster sampling technique was used and all the female employees involved in the randomly selected clusters were invited to participate in the study. Results: Ergonomic factors were the highest reproductive health hazards followed by psychological, chemical, physical, and biological agents (66%, 52.3%, 45.1%, 30.0%, and 10.0%, respectively). About 40.4% of the studied group reported a problem in conceiving a child, and 38% had a history of miscarriage, preterm, stillbirth, or deformed offspring. Miscarriage was the highest reported abnormal obstetric outcome among married participants (22.5%). Conclusion: Ergonomic and psychological hazards were the highest reported ones affecting the reproductive health of participants. Significant associations have been observed between workplace factors and both history of treatment of infertility, and time of pregnancy longer than one year. A significant change in reproductive safety knowledge and attitude has been reported after health education. Recommendations: Periodic health education sessions and prevention orientation have to be carried out for all females working in the university indoors together with periodic assessment of the workplace for possible reproductive health hazards. | ||||
| Keywords | ||||
| Employees; Occupational hazards; Reproductive; Infertility and Miscarriage | ||||
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