Respiratory Tract Problems among Wood Furniture Manufacturing Factory Workers in the Northeast of Thailand
ABSTRACT
Background
Wood furniture manufacturing factory workers are at high risk of exposure to wood
dust in wood working processes. Wood dust exposure could cause respiratory
symptoms, such as reduce lung function, chronic bronchitis, and asthma. The
Northeast region of Thailand has many wood furniture manufacturing factories.
However, limited studies were carried out to explore the effect of wood dust
exposure on workers.
Objective
This study aimed to assess the respiratory symptoms and determine factors associated
with these symptoms among wood furniture manufacturing factory workers.
Method
This cross-sectional analytical research used a multistage random sampling to
select 511 workers from three provinces in the Northeast of Thailand. The data
was collected using a structured questionnaire interview. The content validity of
questionnaire was tested by 3 experts and had a Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.82.
Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and multiple logistic regressions.
Result
The result indicated that 29.94% of these workers had respiratory symptoms,
including coughing(18.79%), nasal secretion (15.66%), and stuffy nose (15.07%).
Factors that were significantly associated with respiratory symptoms (p–value