Developmental Model for Participatory Occupational Health Management in Industrial Plants of Eastern Industrial Area

Abstract

This study aims to develop a model of occupational health management for industrial plants in industrial estates in the eastern region of Thailand. Participatory action research methodology with 3 steps (problem examination, development of management and practice model, and evaluation) is employed. The samples which are selected from the total population of 85,487 are 384 employees of factories in 3 industrial estates in the eastern region of Thailand: Laem Chabang Industrial Estate in Chon Buri province, Amata City Industrial Estate in Rayong province, and Wellgrow Industrial Estate in Chachoengsao province. Questionnaire is used as data collecting tool, and statistics including frequency, percentage, t-test, and One-Way ANOVA are used for data analysis. The findings reveal that the selected employees need to take part in occupational health management the most. From the problem examination, it is found that employee’s health evaluation is the most important problem issue ( = 4.76, SD = 0.54). The responded need in terms of health evaluation is different with statistic significance of 0.05. Ninety eight employees of all the samples have taken part in occupational health management in terms of 1) work environment exploration, 2) employee’s health exploration, 3) behavior adjustment, and 4) occurrence of accident or injury at work. The evaluation of model user’s satisfaction is rated in the level of very satisfied ( = 4.17, SD = 0.59). The findings also indicate that the model is rated in the level of applicable ( = 4.82, SD = 0.59) and it is rated in the level of the most appropriate ( = 4.68, SD = 0.84).