Health Problems in Working among the Agriculture Informal Workers in Ban Mab Krad, Mab Krad Sub-District, Phra Thong Kham District, Nakhon-ratchasima Province

Abstract

This descriptive study aimed to study health problems and association between working behaviors and working conditions and also between threats of working and health problems of 110 agriculture Informal workers. Data were collected by using questionnaires and analyzed by frequency, percentage, mean, median, standard deviation, interquartile range, minimum, maximum and also Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient and Spearman Correlation Coefficient. The results found that most of workers had health problems from their working at low level (72.7%) which their health problems included low back pain and waist pain (78.3%), tiredness from heat (70.9%) and hands, wrists, fingers pain (67.3%). The correlation analysis found that behavioral health and working conditions of the participants was negatively correlated at moderate level to health problems from working with statistical significance (rs = -0.35, p-value<0.001). The threats of physical functioning, chemical and biological aspects of ergonomics had positive correlation at moderate level to health problems from working with statistical significance (rs = 0.48, p-value<0.001; rs = 0.45, pvalue< 0.001; rs = 0.39, p-value<0.001 and rs = 0.48, p-value<0.001, respectively). Regarding the psychosocial threats, there was a positive correlation at low level with health problems from working with statistical significance (r= 0.19, p-value = 0.04). This study suggests that health surveillance, caring of occupational health for reducing risks of illness and injury should be concerned in order to improve quality of the work among working farmers.