Ergonomic investigation of respiratory health among grinding workers of Indian small and medium (SMEs) manufacturing industry
Keywords:
.Abstract
The aim of this paper is to investigate the association of age and duration of work experience with pulmonary functioning of grinding workers in small and medium (SMEs) manufacturing industry of Jalandhar district of Punjab state of India. A total of 61 workers participated in the study with a mean (SD) age of 35.91 (10.52) years and mean (SD) work experience of 11.01 (8.05) years. The standardized American Thoracic Society (ATS) respiratory questionnaire was used to obtain data for respiratory symptoms and lung functioning was assessed by performing spirometry by each worker. Regression analysis was performed to find the effect of age and work experience over lung functioning of the grinding workers. Chi square test was performed to find the association between age and lung functioning; work experience and lung functioning. A significant effect (p<0.05) of work experience and age over lung functioning was found among grinding workers. It is concluded that age, duration of exposure are the factors contributing the decline in respiratory health of the grinding workers.
Keywords: Grinding workers, respiratory symptoms, lung functioning, ATS questionnaire, spirometry, SMEs.
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