Introduction: Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is the eleventh most important cause of
premature mortality in Egypt and is one of the most prevalent and costly chronic disease
conditions in Egypt, it is associated with a profound negative impact on workers’
productivity. Aim of Work: To assess the impact of diabetes on the productivity of
the workers in construction industry. Materials and Methods: A case-control study
was conducted among 34 diabetic workers in construction industry and 34 healthy
workers from the same site. Health and performance questionnaire (HPQ) was used.
In addition, some questions about socio-demographic characteristics, medical and
occupational characteristics. Investigations were done including: fasting and post
prandial blood sugar, HbA1c, liver and renal functions, body mass index (weight /
hight²) were calculated, 34 workers were chosen as a control group and were matched
for socio demographic and occupational characteristics. Results: work days lost due to
DM/month ranging from 0-12 and partial loss of work days due to DM/month was 0-3
,a statistically significant difference between diabetics and controls (where controls
were better than diabetic workers) regarding work performance of an average worker,
total score of work performance and percentage of total score (P0.05). There was no
significant difference between mean value of days lost due to DM and that of days lost
due to other reasons (P>0.05). Conclusion: our results provide evidence for a negative
impact of diabetes on work productivity among construction workers in Egypt due to
increased time loss, increased absenteeism (either partial or total work days loss), yet,
the increased performance by the diabetic workers compensated for that loss. Further
130 Wali H et al.,
Introduction
Chronic disease is a stressful
condition that imposes a different life
style on the patients, with subsequent
changes in daily activities, feeding
habits, work performance and even
family life. One of the most widely
spread chronic diseases is Diabetes
Mellitus (DM) particularly type (2) and
it is the eleventh most important cause
of premature mortality in Egypt, and is
responsible for 2.4% of all years of life
lost (YLL).also, DM is the sixth most
important cause of disability burden in
Egypt (National Centre of Health and
Population, 2004).
Worldwide the prevalence of
diabetes among adults (aged 20-79
years) was 6.4%, affecting 285 million
adults in 2010, and will increase to
7.7% and 439 million adults by 2030.
Between 2010 and 2030, there will be a
69% increase in numbers of adults with
diabetes in developing countries and
20% increase in developed countries
(Shaw et al., 2010).
Construction industry is one of the
industries that have a vast number of
job varieties, ranging from sedentary
office works to various field activities
like building, painting, scaffolding,
plumbing, electrical and electromechanical
works, excavation,
vocational driving, steel fixing,
carpeting and many others. The nature
of construction industry is also transient
both in place and in time. Workers
finish a job at one place, for a certain
period of time, and then start another
job at another place and have a nature
that could be totally different from the
first job (Weeks, 2011).
Construction workers include
about 5 to 10% of the workforce in
industrialized countries. Workers in
construction industry are exposed to
many hazards: physical (atmospheric
conditions, vibration, illumination, and
dust), chemical (through direct contact
or inhalation) or ergonomic, and those
factors affect both white and blue collar
employees. Also, the transient nature of
construction industry and the increased
studies are recommended to explore the consequences of diabetes on work place and to
suggest the interventions. |
