Abstract:
BACKGROUND: Though construction advances the economic fortunes of a country, it still remains a high risk industry. Compliance with safety and health guidelines has been a major challenge to employees. It is important to identify gaps in the practice of occupational safety and health standards to inform impending policy.
OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to determine compliance with health and safety protocols among building construction workers in the La Dade Kotopon Municipal District, Accra, Ghana.
METHODS: This was a descriptive cross sectional study with a quantitative approach to data collection. Multistage sampling technique was used to recruit 123 respondents selected using simple random sampling procedure for this study. Two (2) building construction sites were selected by simple random sampling. Proportionate sampling was employed to determine the number of respondents who were then administered with semi-structured questionnaires by simple random sampling. An observational checklist was used to assess PPE use and compliance with safety protocols. Data was entered into Epi Info Version 7.2.2 and exported to STATA/IC 15. Simple descriptive statistics and chi square were used to analyze categorical variables and determine associations respectively. All p-values <0.05 were considered statistically significant.
RESULTS: All the respondents in this study were males. Majority (52.0%) of the participants were aged between 20-29 years with mean age of 31.85±8.37 years. The commonest reported occupational exposures were noise, dust and falling materials. Awareness of occupational safety and health (OSH) protocol guidelines among the workers was high (87.8%). Majority of the participants (62.6%) only used PPEs when necessary. A high compliance (72.4%) with OSH protocols was observed among the workers. There was a significant association between religion and compliance with OSH protocol (χ2 =7.521, p<0.001), awareness of OSH protocols and compliance with OSH protocols (χ2 =13.811, p<0.001) and PPE use and level of compliance (χ2 =9.137, p=0.028).
CONCLUSION: Physical hazards were the most common hazards identified. There was high awareness of OSH protocol guidelines. Though PPEs were generally available most workers used them only when necessary. There was a high level of compliance with OSH protocol guidelines. Further studies should focus on qualitative approaches and adequate training for workers is required.
