Abstract            Volume:4  Issue-4  Year-2016         Original Research Articles

Online ISSN : 2347 - 3215 Issues : 12 per year Publisher : Excellent Publishers Email : editorijcret@gmail.com

Floriculture is one of the expanding agricultural operations in India. Workers involved in this occupation suffer from high rates of occupation-related health hazards. To identify the morbidity profile of floriculture workers and the factors associated with these morbidities in areas under Sarjapur and Anugon denahalli Primary Health Centres in rural Bangalore. This cross-sectional study was undertaken between May and July 2014. A semi-structured questionnaire was administered to capture the socio-demographic status, occupation, pesticide exposure and morbidity status. Workers in the age group of 18 to 60 years with previous 3months of work experience were included in the study by convenience sampling. A total of 128 workers were interviewed and most of them were cultivating rose (75.2%) and rest of them were (24.8%) cultivating marigold. Most common health problems are musculoskeletal pain (46%), headache (38%), gastritis (21.7%), upper respiratory tract infections (14.72%) and allergic conjunctivitis (10.1%). Only 7.8% of people wear indigenously modified personal protective equipment (PPE) while working. Work-related stress was present in only 3.1% workers. There was significant association between back pain and posture of the workers. Gender, education, income, duration of working hours and flower category were the factors which were found to be significantly associated with personal protective equipment usage. The floriculture workers suffer occupational health hazards. These risks and morbidities among the workers were found to be significantly associated with poor posture while working and inadequate use of PPEs. Larger studies should be conducted in future in exploring the magnitude of the problem, which should also identify the measures to improve the health status of the floriculture workers. Improving the general health awareness of this occupational group will be essential for their well being.

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