Abstract:

A cross sectional descriptive study was conducted to assess work stress and self-reported health problems in female ready-made garment workers. This cross sectional study was carried out on a sample of 310 female workers selected purposively from a ready-made garment factory located in Savar, Dhaka. Work stress was estimated by using an ERIs questionnaire; while self-reported health problems, work-related information and socio-demographic information were obtained using a semi-structured questionnaire by face to face interview. The study was conducted for a period of one year extending from January 2014 to December 2014 in a Ready-made Garment factory of Bangladesh located in Hemayetpur bus stand, Savar, Dhaka. The mean age of the respondents was 27.26±5.93 years and they were mostly married (71.3%). Most of them (55.5%) had primary education and another 20.0% never went to school. The mean monthly and per capita family incomes of the respondents were Tk7573.55± 961.06 and Tk3831.50± 1892.94 respectively. Among the respondents, 59.7% worked in the sewing section, followed by 14.8% in the finishing section. Their mean duration of employment and total working hours per week was 36.68±17.92 months and 58.35±3.08 hours respectively. About one fifth (22.9%) of the study participants were found to have high stress. Almost 53.2% respondents were found to have been suffering from headache for last 2 months. Back pain and chronic cough was significantly associated with age and total work time per week (p<0.05). Shoulder pain, stomach problem, pain/burning of eye, fatigue and general weakness was significantly associated with age (p<0.05). Painful/burning micturation was also significantly associated with age and total work time per week (p<0.05). High stress was not uncommon among female ready-made garment workers. Self-reported health problems were found to be associated with socio-demographic and work related factors. Programs should be taken to reduce working environment stressors, to enhance wellbeing conditions. A further analysis report using delegate sample from ready-made garment sector needs to be undertaken to obtain generalizable findings.

Keywords: Work stress, self-reported health problem, Ready Made Garment Workers.

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