Work practices related to occupational hazards among workers in Thailand

Introduction
The success of the occupational safety and health (OSH) procedure depends on the practices of workers who exposed to a wide range of occupational hazards. This cross-sectional study was conducted to identify the relationship between work practice scores and contributing factors such as risk awareness of workers, OSH system, environment and health assessment, and health education program.

Methods
Data were collected during February- April 2011 in eight provinces. Ten workers were selected in each factory. Two types of self-administered questionnaires were assessed in selected consenting workers and the person who was responsible to OSH procedure. Mixed random effects modeling was performed to examine the independent contribution of selected variables in predicting work practices scores.

Results
Of 84 factories, there were 592 workers participated in this study. The modeling indicated that: 1) poor accident prevention practices score was 1.07 times higher in workers who were not trained in a topic of accident prevention, 3) poor noise prevention practices score was higher 1.30, 1.10, and 1.14 times in workers who never obtained periodic health examination, workers who were not trained in a topic of noise prevention, and workers who were not informed regarding environmental measure results, respectively and 4) poor chemical prevention practices score was higher 1.09, 1.16, 1.13, and 1.09 times in female, workers who never obtained periodic health examination, workers who were not trained in a topic of chemical prevention, and workers who were not informed regarding environmental measure results, respectively.

Discussion
Work practices related to work injuries, noise exposure, and chemical exposure mainly depends on the OSH procedures including the prevention training program, periodic health examination and the notification of work environmental measure results. To enhance the good practices of workers to reduce the risk of work injuries and hazards exposure, such procedures should be added widely especially in the small factories.