Workers often need to wear protective equipment to be protected from injury, illness and death caused by exposure to workplace hazards. The aim of this study is to evaluate the implemented educational intervention regarding personal protective equipment (PPE) for textile industrial workers. Quasi-experimental design was utilized to study causal relationships between variables of interest. This study was conducted in Kafr El Dawar textile industry, Behara. One hundred and twenty eight workers exposed to cotton dust were randomly selected and included in the present study. Tools of the study were structured interviewing questionnaire, educational intervention (pre/post-tests were used before and after the intervention to test the worker's knowledge) and an observation checklist was used to indicate the workers' compliance with PPE. The exposed workers' age ranges from 20 to 59 years with a mean of 44.2 ± 8.1 years. The duration of work exposure ranged from 7 to 35 years. More than 3/4 of the workers' sample was suffering from one or more symptoms of respiratory tract syndromes. Statistically significant differences was detected between workers' complains and the duration of work exposure (P<0.01). mean scores of the workers knowledge about the respiratory tract symptoms and hearing loss were increased significantly after the educational intervention (P <0.0001). There were statistical significant differences of the workers' compliance with the using of personal protective equipment, which reflects the raising of workers' awareness after the educational intervention. The study concluded that the educational intervention was effective and its results had marked improvement in workers' knowledge and compliance with the using of PPE than ever before. It is also recommended that health education programs should be developed and carried out by industrial nurse regarding PPE in other textile industries. |
