Work Stress and Self-Reported Health Problems in Female Ready Made Garment Workers

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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