Occupational related injuries and disabilities among operational fire fighters in Ghana
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Date
June, 2016
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Abstract
Fire fighters experience inordinate numbers of line-of duty (LOD) injuries due to occupational diseases, and forced retirements. There seems however to be no improvement in terms of policies and structures to curtail this challenge. The main objective sought to assess the triggers and types of injury and disabilities and their implications on operational fire fighters in Ghana. The study was descriptive cross-sectional study. The study involved 245 fire personnel drawn from larger urban fire stations (Greater Accra, Central region, Western region and Ashanti regional fire commands). Data was collected using structured questionnaires and in-depth interview guides. Analysis of data was done using SPSS version 22 and this involved descriptive statistics and testing of associations. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was done to adjust for the confounding effects of the independent variables and to estimate the odds of experiencing injury among fire personnel. All statistical tests were conducted at significance level of p<0.05. The study showed a high level of injury among firefighters (51% of the respondents in this study admitted they had ever experienced injury) and most of these injuries were minor. Three was however poor management of injury with only less than 10% being catered for by the service. Majority of interviewed fire fighters had not had safety training, lacked surveillance systems, and there were inadequate injury tracking programmes suggesting low level of preparedness in injury prevention and disability care. Lack of health safety training among firefighters increased the odds of experiencing injury (AOR=2.82; 95% CI= 1.4, 5.8). This study found a high level of injury but a low level of preparedness in dealing with injury and disability in the GNFS. Efforts should be scaled up to ensure adequate preparedness in terms of equipment and training, lack of which has shown to increase experience of injuries.
Description
A thesis submitted to the Department of Health Policy, Management, and Economics, School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences in partial fulfillment as a requirement for the degree of Masters in Public Health, Health Services Planning, and Management,