Safety in Workplaces and Factors Influencing Work Safety Behavior among Pregnant Women Working in the Industries in the East Coast Area of Thailand

Abstract

Having a career as an industrial worker while pregnant might adversely affect a pregnant women’s and/or their fetus’s health. Especially inappropriate working behavior could cause detrimental effects during pregnancy outcome. This descriptive research aimed to investigate safety in workplaces and factors influencing work safety behaviors among pregnant women working as industrial workers on the east coast of Thailand. Participants included 400 pregnant women working in factories and receiving antenatal care services in Samutprakan, Chachoengsoa and Chonburi provinces. Multistage random sampling was used to select subjects. Data were collected by questionnaire to record demographic data; characteristics of jobs; knowledge about work safety; believe in workplace safety; perceived benefit, perceived barriers, and perceived self-efficacy in having work safety behavior; received work safety support; and work safety behaviors. Data were collected at an antenatal care private clinics located in industrial areas during March to May 2018, and analyzed by descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis.

Results revealed that participants had high mean scores for safety in the workplace (x̄ = 8.70, S.D. = 1.63), and 56.9% of those worked over 40 hours per week, 46.0% worked by repetitively using their hands and wrist, and 43.8% sat longer than 2 hours when working. Factors inducing believe in their workplace safety, perceived self-efficacy and perceived barrier in work safety behavior, and age explained 16.4% of the variance in work safety behaviors. Findings recommend that maternity nurses may encourage pregnant workers to gain their perceived self-efficacy and their perceived barriers to work safety behaviors.