Occupational Health Risk Perceptions and Determinants: Knowledge and attitude of Sanitary workers in Public Hospitals of Ethiopia Authors

Sina Temesgen Tolera^*

• College of Health and Medical Sciences, Haramaya University, Dire Dawa, Ethiopia

Introduction: Occupational health risk (OHR) perception refers to an individual's subjective assessment of the likelihood and severity of potential health hazards within their workplace, which could be influenced by knowledge and attitude of sanitary workers (SWs), which is not well studied in Ethiopia. Therefore, the aim of the study was to assess KA and determinants about occupational health risk perceptions among SWs in public hospitals of eastern Ethiopia Methods: Hospital based cross-sectional study was conducted on total of 809 SWs. Face-to-face interview was conducted. Knowledge items were measured by [YES/NO] and then, categorized as "Good" if 16-20 points; "fair" if 10-15 points; and "poor" if < 10 points. On the other hand, attitude items were measured on Likert scales (Strongly Disagree [1] to Strongly Agree [5]) and classified as Level 1: Unfavored, Level 2: Neutral and Level 3: Favored. Multilevel ordinal logistic regression ([MLM-OLR] was performed for the predictions Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to determine the correlations between level of knowledge and attitudes to OHRP.The study found that the level of poor knowledge and unfavored attitude towards OHR among SWs were 67.35% and 42.66%. The difference of knowledge and attitude about the OHR perceptions of SWs from hospitals to hospitals were 19.34% and 39.55%, respectively. The final model shows that trained on occupational health and safety [OHS] (AOR:4.90; 3.10, 7.75), satisfied with job (AOR:1.88; 1.10,3.75), satisfied with environment (AOR:2.57; 1.09, 6.05) were significantly associated with higher knowledge levels about OHR. While, SWs those satisfied with environment (AOR: 2.67; 1.03,6.92), and good IPC practice (AOR: 20.43;15,35.84) were significantly associated high level of the attitude about OHR. The SEM model shows that OHS training (β:0.35; 0.27,0.44) and compliance with infection prevention and control [IPC] (β:0.07; 0.02, 0.12) as well as compliance with personal protective equipment [PPE] (β: 0.14; 0.04, 0.23) were positive impact with the KA about OHR.The current study concluded that majority of sanitary workers had inadequate knowledge and negative attitude about OHR perceptions. The most predictor were OHS training,