Health status and health-related quality of life of municipal waste collection workers - a cross-sectional survey

Waste collection workers are exposed to several occupational stressors which may affect their quality of life. Our aim was to assess the health status and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of municipal waste collection workers of a big German city. Cross-sectional study with a non-random sample...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of occupational medicine and toxicology (London, England) England), 2015-07, Vol.10 (1), p.22-22, Article 22
Main Authors: Velasco Garrido, Marcial, Bittner, Cordula, Harth, Volker, Preisser, Alexandra Marita
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Backache
Health aspects
Job stress
Lung diseases, Obstructive
Occupational health
Refuse and refuse disposal
Surveys
Volunteerism
Workers
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Waste collection workers are exposed to several occupational stressors which may affect their quality of life. Our aim was to assess the health status and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of municipal waste collection workers of a big German city. Cross-sectional study with a non-random sample of 65 (62 male, 3 female) workers of the Hamburg sanitation department, volunteering to participate in the study. We assessed the prevalence of reported health complaints and health problems. HRQoL was assessed with the self-administered EQ-5D-5L questionnaire and its visual analogue scale (VAS). The most common health problems were musculoskeletal complaints (back pain reported by 67.2 %, other musculoskeletal complaints 15.4 %). Asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) was reported by 15.4 % of the workers. All participants reporting having a diagnosis of asthma or COPD had been or were active smokers. Our findings indicate an impaired HRQoL among the investigated occupational group. Regarding EQ-5D 68.3 % reported at least "slight" problems in one or more dimensions, and almost one third (31.7 %) reported "no problems" in any dimension. Problems were most frequently reported in the dimension "pain/discomfort" (64.1 % of the workers). The mean VAS value was 80.9 (13.2). The presence of back pain was associated with limitations in HRQoL (RR 3.1; 95 %-CI 1.5-6.1). The EQ5D VAS score was statistically significantly lower among waste collectors with back pain (77.9 SD 14.1) compared to those with no back complaints (88.0 SD 7.6, p 
ISSN:1745-6673
1745-6673
DOI:10.1186/s12995-015-0065-6