Occupational disease risk factors determination in primary care physicians

Abstract

Introduction. Millions of people around the world work in unsafe conditions, due to which the number of people affected by the occupational diseases is constantly increasing. Annually about 1,1 million people become victims of the occupational diseases and work accidents, while another 60 million cases are being newly recorded. Aim of the study. Assessing medical staff from the primary care institutions in the rural areas and developing a set of measures that would ensure a safe working environment for the workforce. Materials and methods. For setting out the objectives, a comprehensive study was carried out which included: the study of morbidity and the socio-economic and psychological factors of the medical staff. The study group included 387 physicians from the primary health care institutions. Results. This study helped us reveal what were the main risk factors that the medical workforce was put at, the incidence of each being as follows: tiredness - 36,2%; depression - 32 %; stress - 29,4%; irritability - 15,2%; anxiety - 11,4%. These results helped us establish a new set of measures that would ensure a safer working environment for the staff of the primary care health institutions from Orhei and Hîncești. Conclusions. This study allowed us to elaborate a new set of measures that will reduce the aforementioned occupational risk factors incidence and will consequently serve as occupational disease prophylaxis in the medical staff from the primary health care institutions.